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AN TAIN BO CUALGNE 


DEIRDRE 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


Copyrriaut, 1923, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 





Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1923, 


THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY 
NEW YORE 


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BOOK I 





CHAPTER I 


ONCE on a time Conachir mac Nessa’? was 
on a journey, and had to pass the night at 
the house of Felimid mac Dall, his story- 
teller. He was annoyed because his wife, 
Maeve, had not come with him, but Maeve 
had the knack of annoying him more than 
any one else was able to; so that when he 
thought of her his mind went intriguing and 
adventuring, for he was always trying to get 
the better of her, and was seldom without 
the feeling that she was getting or had just 
got the best of him. 

For this reason he was irritable and could 
not look at any one with benevolence except 
Fergus mac Roy. But he could not look 
otherwise than benevolently on Fergus. 

Meantime, night was at hand, and one 

*Conachir=pron. Kun-a-hoor; mac=pron. mock. 


3 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


must sleep, and it is vexatious to sleep 
alone. 

He clapped his hands, and said to the 
attendant who appeared: 

‘Is Felimid mac Dall married?” 

‘‘ He is, master.” 

‘““Give my compliments to Felimid,’’ said 
Conachur, ‘‘and tell him that his wife is to 
sleep with me to-night.”’ 

The attendant vanished and the king was 
left alone. That is, he was left to his 
thoughts, for when he was among those he 
was where other men might not care to 
follow him. In fact, the large room wherein 
he sat was almost uncomfortably filled with 
men: but they kept respectfully apart, play- 
ing chess, and speaking in low voices to one 
another. 

The attendant returned. 

“A Ri Uasal!”’ said he humbly. 

“Well?” said Conachur. 

“The master of the house regrets that 
his wife cannot sleep with you to-night.” 

“Here is something new,” said the king 
sternly. 

‘His wife is at this moment in childbed,”’ 
murmured the discreet servant. 


4 


CH.I DEIRDRE 


‘These women are always troublesome,” 
said the king with jovial anger. ‘‘She 
troubles me by withdrawing herself from my 
comfort, and she troubles my poor Felimid by 
giving him a child he could well do without.” 

He looked moodily on his gentlemen. 
There was Cathfa,* the famous poet, and 
Conall his grandson, to be known later 
as Cearnac (the victorious), but already 
notable; bitter-tongued Bricriu, who was 
famous or infamous according to one’s 
judgement; Uisneac, who had married one 
of Cathfa’s three daughters, and for whose 
little son Naoise the queens of Ireland would 
weep so long as Ireland had a memory; and 
there was Fergus mac Roy. 

Conachur’s eye travelled loweringly from 
one to the other of these men until it rested 
on Fergus, and on him it rested lovingly, 
benevolently. 

He looked loweringly on the others 
because they did not stand in any particular 
relation to him at the moment. He looked 
lovingly and mildly on Fergus because he 
hated Fergus and had wronged him so 
bitterly that he must wrong him yet more in 

1Cathfa=pron. Kaffa. 


5 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


justification. His wife and Fergus mac Roy 
were often in his thoughts, so he looked very 
lovingly on them and speculated a great deal 
about their future. 

But this night the young king was seri- 
ously out of humour, not only because of his 
wife’s absence, but because of many things 
that had happened. Three comets in succes- 
sion had flashed across the sky as they drove 
to the Story-teller’s house. His leading 
chariot-horse had trod in a rabbit-hole and 
its leg was cracked at the fetlock; and one 
of his attendants had been taken with mortal 
vomitings, and it did not seem that he would 
finish until he had emptied his body of his 
soul. 

Conachur called to his father: 

‘You are a poet, and should be able to 
tell us the meaning of these various omens.” 

“Tt is not hard to tell,’ said the calm 
magician. 

‘Then tell it,” quoth the king testily. 

As he spoke a thin wail came from some- 
where in the building, and the men present 
turned an ear to that little sound, and then 
a questioning or humorous eye on each 
other. 


6 


CH.I DEIRDRE 


mxoienear, said: the; poet. “Ay child 
has just been born in this house. She will 
bring evil to Ireland, and she will work 
destruction in Ulster as a ferret works 
destruction in a rabbit’s burrow.” 

Cathfa then returned to his chess, leaving 
the company staring. 

“You have the gift of comfortable 
prophecy,” said the king. 

‘Put an end to the prophecy by putting 
an end to the child,” Bricriu advised, ‘‘ and 
then let us see how the gods manage their 
affairs.” 

‘“Bricriu, my soul,” said the king, “you 
like troubling the waters, but to-night you 
seem to be afflicted with sense. Bring the 
creature to me.”’ 

They carried the little morsel to him and 
she was laid across his knees. 

“So you are to destroy my kingdom and 
bring evil to mighty Ireland?”’ 

The babe reached with a tiny claw and 
gripped one finger of the king. 

See,’ he laughed, “she places herself 
under my protection,’ and he moved his 
finger to and fro, but the child held fast 
to it. 


7 


DEIRDRE BE. I 


“Ulster is under your _ protection,” 
growled Bricriu. 

The king, who did not like other men’s 
advice, looked at him. 

“Tt is not soldierly, nor the act of a 
prince, to evade fate,” said he who was to be 
known afterwards as the wide-eyed, majestic 
monarch. “Therefore, all that can happen 
will happen, and we shall bear all that is to 
be borne.” 

Then he gave the child back to its 
trembling nurse. 

Cathfa looked up from the chess-board. 

“She is to be called the ‘Troubler,’”’ 
said he. 

And from that day ‘Deirdre’ was her 
name. 


CHAPTER II 


WHEN Echaid Yellow-Heel was King of 
Ulster, he had a daughter called Assa. She 
was educated apart from her father’s resid- 
ence by twelve tutors, and none of these had 
ever trained a pupil who was so docile, so 
teachable, or so affectionate. She loved know- 
ledge, and so she loved learned men and 
would be always in their company. 

One day she went on a visit to her father’s 
court, and when she returned to her lessons 
she found that her twelve tutors had been 
murdered, and there was nothing to tell who 
had killed them. 

From that moment her nature changed. 
She put on the dress of a female warrior, 
gathered a company about her, and went 
marauding and plundering in every direction. 
She was no longer called Assa (the Gentle), 


9 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


but Nessa, or the Ungentle, was her name 
thenceforth. 

Cathfa, the son of Ross, was then a young, 
powerful, and ambitious man, learning magic, 
or practising what he had learned, and it was 
he had slain the tutors, but Nessa did not 
know this. It may be that Cathfa had 
visited the tutors during her absence, and, 
for young magicians do not love argument, 
he may have killed them after a dispute. 

Once, on one of her marauding expedi- 
tions, she went questing in a wilderness. At 
a distance there was a spring of clear water, 
and, while her people were preparing food, 
Nessa went to this spring to bathe. She was 
in the water when Cathfa passed, for he also 
was in that wilderness, and when he saw the 
girl’s body he loved her, for she was young 
and lovely. He approached, and placed 
himself between the girl and her dress and 
weapons, and he held a sword over her head. 

‘Spare me,”’ she pleaded. 

“If you will be my wife I will spare you,” 
said Cathfa. 

She agreed to that, for no other course 
was open to her, and they rejoined her party. 

They were married, and Nessa’s father 


IO 


CH. Il DEIRDRE 


gave them a bride-gift of land, called after- 
wards Rath Cathfa, in the country of the 
Picts in Cri Ross. In time a son was born 
to those two, namely, Conachur mac Nessa, 
for it was by his mother’s name he was 
known, and it was for him that Cathfa 
made the poem beginning : 


Welcome to the stranger that has come here. 


There are some who say, however, that 
Fachtna the Mighty had been the leman of 
Nessa, and that it was he was the father 
of Conachur instead of Cathfa. If so, as 
Fachtna was the son of Maga, who was 
daughter of Anger mac an Og of the Brugh, 
then Conachir had the blood of a god in 
his veins as well as the blood of a mortal, 
and much of his great success and of his 
terrible failure can be accounted for; for 
the gods are unlucky in love, so, too, the son 
of a wise mother is unlucky in love, as is 
also the man who is fortunate in war. 

After some time Nessa left her husband, 
taking her son with her. It may be that she 
had discovered he was the murderer of her 
tutors. It may have been that she did not 
love him; it may even be that she did not 


II 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


like being wife to a magician, or he may 
have grown tired of her. But she never 
returned to him again. 

But when Conachtr was a youth Nessa 
was still the most beautiful woman of Ulster. 
The then King of Ulster, Fachtna the 
Mighty, died, and his young half-brother, 
Fergus, the son of Roy, wife of Ross the 
Red, son of Rury, came to the throne. 
Fergus was then eighteen years of age and 
Conachtir was sixteen, and, like Conachur, - 
Fergus also was known by his mother’s 
name instead of his father’s. 

Nessa came to the Ulster court with her 
son, and while there Fergus fell madly in 
love with her, and she could in no way 
avoid the importunities of that monstrous 
youth, for Fergus was gigantic in bulk and 
stature. 

‘‘T shall marry you on one condition,” said 
Nessa. 

‘‘T agree to it beforehand,” said Fergus. 

‘You know the great love I bear my son, 
Conachir?”’ 

‘T also love him,” said Fergus. 

‘His descent is kingly,” she said, ‘‘and 
I desire that he should be a king if it were 

I2 


CH. 11 DEIRDRE 


only for a year. If you resign the crown to 
him during our first year of marriage I will 
marry you.” 

‘“[ will do that,” said Fergus. - 

That was done, and for a year Fergus and 
Nessa lived happily together. 

But Nessa was not entirely absorbed in 
love. She was still thinking of her son. 
During that year she arranged a marriage 
for Conachur with Clothru, the daughter of 
the High King of Ireland, and she spent a 
vast treasure in working among the nobles 
and important people of Ulster, so that they 
became of her son’s party as against the 
party of her husband. 

Indeed, her young husband had no party, 
for he was the least suspicious man living in 
the world, and, except in matters of honour 
or war, he would make no plans and take no 
trouble. Nor was Conachur idle during his 
year of kingship. His ability was marvel- 
lous, and his energy as wonderful. Feuds 
that seemed to be endless were settled by 
him. Foreign affairs that threatened or 
hung offered him no trouble. But it was 
from the Judgement Seat that his fame 
spread most quickly. 


13 


DEIRDRE BK. 1 


“A fool,” said the proverb, ‘‘can give 
judgement, but who will give us justice?” 
No question was so tangled but that swift 
mind could pierce it; no matter was too 
ponderous to be weighed by him, or too 
light to escape his attention. He knew all, 
he attended to all; everything he touched 
was bettered, and men said that until that 
year Ulster had never known prosperity, or 
peace, or justice, but only the imitation of 
these. Conachir was every man’s friend, 
and in a short time every man was his. 

Fergus returned to a court that had for- 
gotten him, or that was so blinded by the 
new prodigy that they saw nothing when 
they looked elsewhere. It was held that 
Fergus had actually resigned the kingship, 
or that he had given it as a dowry to his 
wife; and, although the young lord may 
have been dismayed, the representation of 
the nobles, and, in particular, the wit and 
cajolery of his wife, arranged that matter, 
so that he made no effort to regain his king- 
dom, and in a short time he was the 
most devoted admirer of Conachur in the 
realm. 

It is possible that Nessa left him then, or 


14 


CH. II DEIRDRE 


that she died, but we do not hear of her 
again. 

Conachur’s married life may have been 
happy, but it was short. At the end of 
about eight months Clothru returned to 
Connacht on a visit to the High King, her 
father. We do not know what happened, 
but a dispute arose between Clothru and her 
youngest sister, Maeve.t. Maeve struck a 
blow that killed Clothru, and Conachir’s first 
child was born in its mother’s death agonies. 

When this news came to Ulster Conachur 
set out to demand reparation or vengeance, 
but when he beheld Maeve his ideas under- 
went a horrible change. He had never seen 
anything like this queenly creature. He 
had not imagined that there could be in the 
world a girl so wonderful as she, for she 
was brave and able and of a marvellous 
loveliness. Conachur’s hard mind would 
not flinch when once his lusts were aroused. 
His vengeance and his desire made common 
cause. He married Maeve against her wish, 
and without her consent, and he bore her 


*It was this Maeve, anciently spelled “Madb,” who 
became afterwards “Mab” the Queen of the Fairies of 
Spenser and Shakespeare. 


15 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


back with him to Ulster, a queen, a captive, 
and, notwithstanding her crime, a deeply 
wronged woman. 

Fergus mac Roy and Maeve, these were 
his victims, and from them there was to 
arise a story which would seem to the king 
as unending as time itself. Those two, and 
Deirdre! 


16 


CHAPTER III 


DEIRDRE grew up in a place apart at Emania. 
She saw no people of any kind, except Lavar- 
cham, the king’s ‘‘conversation- woman,” 
and her women servants; for always about 
the castle where she lived there was a guard 
of the oldest and ugliest swordsmen that 
were in Ulster. Their duty was to let 
nobody pass in or out of the castle grounds; 
for it was the king’s intention to outwit fate 
as he had outwitted all else that had moved 
in his path. 

Thus she grew in gentleness and peace, 
hearing no voice less sweet than the voice of 
the birds that sang in the sunshine, or the 
friendly calling of the wind she played with; 
seeing nothing more uncomely than the 
gracious outline of far hills, the many- 
coloured sky that fled and was never gone, 


17 Cc 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


the creatures that lived unmolested in the 
trees about the castle, and the wild deer 
that grew tame in nearby brakes. All that 
she knew was friendly to her and naught 
was rough. All that she drew nigh to 
stood for her approach. Naught fled from 
her, and she did not flee from anything. 

Watching her, as she stood or sat or went, 
the wise Lavarcham used to lose her senses, 
for all that was beautiful was here gathered 
into one form, as in one true ray of the sun 
is all that is lovely of the sun. The running 
wind, and the wild creatures of the wood ; 
the folk from the Shi, the Bochanachs and 
Bananocks, and the aerial beings that are 
not seen, might have stayed to look at 
Deirdre, but had they stayed they could not 
have gone again, for they would have become 
eyes only, and they would have perished in 
beauty, gazing on it. 

Lavarcham was a wise woman. © She 
could not have occupied and continued to 
hold her position in Conachur’s household 
had she not been wise. She was known 
as the king’s “‘conversation-woman,’ and 
she could indicate an unpleasant truth as 
delicately as a poet can express the dimple 


18 


CH. Ir DEIRDRE 


in a lady’s chin. But her real occupation, 
masked by the courteous word, was that of 
household spy. She went to and fro in the 
vast palaces at Emania, and nothing passed 
there, whether among the nobles or the 
servants, that she was not privy to, or which 
the king was not thereafter acquainted with. 
She could adapt herself to any situation and 
to every society; and if her chatter with her 
kitchen-maids was jovial and in key, her 
conversation with a young princess or an old 
bard was not less balanced and elucidatory. 

She had many things to teach a young 
girl, and she withheld no knowledge that 
could benefit the little one whom her heart 
had soon adopted as its own babe. The 
virtues as well as the arts were part of her 
experience, so that Deirdre grew in the love 
of chastity, of industry, and of joyfulness. 

In this way and in these teachings the 
years -went by, unnoticed as years. Day 
followed night, and night came after day in 
a timeless succession, each adding its un- 
noticeable little to her stature, its unseen 
tender curve to her limbs, its imperceptible 
deposit of memory to her mind. 

But among the arts of which the tireless 


19 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


Lavarcham spoke there was one she taught 
and retaught to Deirdre, and that art was 
Conachur. 

Although she had never seen the king yet 
the young girl knew him as a mother knows 
her baby. She could have recited his baby- 
hood, his adolescence, and now his maturity. 
She knew, as only Lavarcham did, why he 
did such a certain thing, and by what pro- 
gressions this stated consummation, mar- 
velled at by others, had been arrived at. It 
was of infinite interest to Deirdre, but its 
inevitable effect was to stamp the unseen 
king with a seal of time, so that, although 
Lavarcham insisted he was only thirty-five 
years of age, the young girl’s mind regarded 
him as one who could have been father and 
grandfather to a hill. 

She reported to Conachur at proper inter- 
vals as to her ward, and he, if he had wished, 
might have checked the passing years by his 
memory of the stories of Lavarcham told him 
of Deirdre learning to walk, and walking ; 
of Deirdre learning to talk and talking: 
her teeth were counted to him as she cut 
them, and when she bruised her knee slip- 
ping down a bank, or when she wept for the 


20 


CH. Ill DEIRDRE 


cold fledgling she found on the path, or 
when she refused to weep in a_ thunder- 
storm, he was acquainted with the facts, and 
nodded at them gravely as they were told. 

She had been a round thing, all surprise 
and fluff, like a young duck: she became a 
lank anatomy, all leg and hair and stare, 
like a young colt: then she became a wild 
thing, all spring and peep and run, like a 
young fawn ; and now she was what Lavar- 
cham continued to report and dilate on. 

But the king could not believe one half 
of the tale that Lavarcham told, for it seemed 
to him that such beauty as she reported was 
not credible, and he knew that women speak 
foolishly when they talk of beauty. He 
was, moreover, well satisfied with the queen 
who was with him then, Maeve, the lovely 
daughter of the High King. 


2I 


CHAPTER IV 


Ir happened at last that Maeve came to the 
decision which for a long time had been 
forming in her mind. She decided that 
she would not remain with the King of 
Ulster any longer, and, having so decided 
and faced all its implications, she was not 
long in finding an opportunity to get away 
from him. It is not right to say that she 
“found” an opportunity, for she was of 
those who create chance, and who do at all 
times everything that is in their minds. 
There were many reasons why she might 
have been discontented as the wife of 
Conachur. ‘The similiarity of their char- 
acters, their equally imperious tempera- 
ments, their equally untiring and almost 
identical habits of mind rendered each an 
object of suspicion and endless cogitation 


22 


CH. IV DEIRDRE 


to the other. They could not rest together 
or apart, for each knew what, in certain 
circumstances, he or she would do, and un- 
erringly credited the other with the per- 
formance of these surmised deeds. Thus 
leisure, which might have been profitably 
spent by either, was wasted by both 
in courteous ambuscades and counter or 
parallel schemes, so that the private habit 
of one was a perpetual cancelling of the 
private desires of the other, and a state of 
exasperation existed between them which, 
as it could not come to the surface and be 
faced or downfaced, ended by being a very 
poison to life. 

In settling out these terms it is more 
proper to refer them to Maeve than to the 
king, for in the large conduct of his affairs 
he could escape from his household and 
forget in the Council Hall or the Judgement 
Seat that which his wife was given only the 
greater leisure to remember in her Sunny 
Chamber or among her servants and syco- 
phants. 

But matrimony had been poisoned for 
them at the very fountain, and a dear, 
detestable memory for Maeve was that her 


23 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


husband had outraged her before he married 
her, and that he had taken her then and 
thereafter in her own despite. 

If it had been a question of morality she 
might have forgiven Conachur almost before 
forgiveness could be prayed for, but it was 
not a moral violence she raged against. She 
was a lady to whom nothing in the world 
was so dear and instant as she was herself, 
and that any man should lay an uninvited 
hand upon her outraged her sense of pro- 
priety as no general idea could have done. 
But she was as courageous as she was 
beautiful and as unblushing as either. The 
world might have heard her statement of the 
virtues she demanded in a husband, and if 
the world was alarmed the young queen 
permitted it to be as it pleased, on con- 
dition that it did not interfere with her, nor 
question her wish. 

“My husband,” she said, “must be free 
from cowardice, and free from avarice, and 
free from jealousy; for I am brave in battles 
and combats, and it would be a discredit to 
my husband if I were braver than he. I| 
am generous and a great giver of gifts, and 
it would be a disgrace to my husband if he 


24 


CH. IV DEIRDRE 


were less generous than I am. And,’’ she 
continued, “it would not suit me at all if 
he were jealous, for I have never denied 
myself the man I took a fancy to, and I 
never shall whatever husband I have now 
or may have hereafter.” 

It is possible that her husband did not 
fulfil these conditions as completely as 
Maeve desired. Of his courage there 
could be no doubt. He had proved that 
on many an opponent, and although there 
were better soldiers there were few who 
breasted danger with such gay violence. As 
to his generosity that might be questioned 
by one so whole-hearted as Maeve, for 
although he would give often and largely 
there might be more of calculation than of 
spontaneity in the gift: but it is in the third 
of her stipulations that Conachur would 
probably be found wanting; for, given his 
temperament, his furious passions, his habit 
of command, and his endless cleverness, he 
should have been a very madman for 
jealousy. All clever men are jealous: it 
is one of the forms of egoism. 

He must have tracked the discontented 
lady with the persistence of a bloodhound 


25 


DEIRDRE BK.1I 


and all the casual anonymity of a husband. 
He would have been always just there in 
the place where she least desired to see him; 
and it is possible that gentlemen on whom 
her eyes rested approvingly would disappear 
before her eyes had adequately rested on 
them. It may have seemed to Maeve that 
some one like Conachur was standing at 
every corner in Emain Macha,’ and that 
at the few corners where he was not his 
conversation-woman was, or some other 
withered crone was there blaring hideously 
on her yellow tusk and making a noise that 
would annoy a young woman, but which 
might absolutely terrify a young man. 

She reviewed the situation and all the 
subsidiary situations. She thought of what 
her father, the High King, would say, and 
knew how he should be answered and by 
what arts he might be made an ally. She 
thought of what her two sisters would urge, 
but she thought of them negligently, con- 
sidering that they would be more anxious to 
avoid than to meet her. And she thought 
of her third sister, about whom she need 
speculate no more; and Maeve’s hand that 


*Emain Macha=pronounced Evan Maha. 
26 


Se A 





CH. IV DEIRDRE 


struck the blow had been as steady as was 
her mind that contemplated its memory. 
Conachur had come to demand vengeance 
and had exacted marriage. That was his 
vengeance, and she thought of the cold- 
minded, furious-blooded king in every alter- 
nation from astonishment to rage, and in 
every mood except that of fear, for she was 
not afraid of him, or of anything that lived. 


* 


27 


CHAPTER V 


HER immediate intention was to get away 
from Ulster and so to order her conduct in 
the meantime that the king, who suspected 
everything and foresaw all, would have no 
suspicion of this: therefore, if she cogitated 
her plans she kept them in her own mind. 
She would have no confidant until the action 
was decided and the hour for it had struck. 
And in this matter she had much to think 
of. But she patiently resolved these com- 
plexities, so that each went at last into its 
place in her plan, and she had the leisure 
to review and revise it until she could be 
certain that nothing was forgotten and that 
a perfect piece of machinery had been 
created. The machine was not visible, but 
it would appear as at a wave of her hand, and 
it would begin to move at the hour of its 


28 





CH. V DEIRDRE 


birth. It was not by chance that this lady 
was called by a masculine name,* for she had 
patience and tenacity and a clear, cool head. 

Had it been merely a question of getting 
comfortably away there would have been 
nothing in the prospect to exercise the queen. 
She would have mounted her chariot, and, 
whether her husband was looking or not 
looking, she would have driven wherever she 
wished to go: she would have driven over 
him if he had stood in her way and through 
his army if that had been unavoidable. The 
dificulty was that she did not intend to 
leave with Conachir the possessions she had 
brought to Ulster and those that she had since 
acquired, for the High King had endowed 
his daughter in a manner befitting his con- 
dition and the rank she was to occupy; and, as 
a wife’s possessions were secured to her by the 
law of the land, she did not intend to leave 
Conachur richer than he had a right to be. 

It was the transport of this vast baggage 
which exercised the queen. 

She owned flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, 
droves of horses and pigs. ‘These naturally 
had multiplied during her residence at 


1The word Maeve or Mab seems to mean “Intoxication.” 


29 


DEIRDRE BE. 1 


Emain. She had vessels of gold and silver, 
of findriny and bronze. She had rings and 
bracelets; shoulder torques as big as plates, 
and breast brooches that were twice as big. 
She had pleasure chariots and war chariots; 
she had rich fabrics of linen embroidered 
with gold and silver thread; many-coloured, 
silken shawls with deep fringes of gold or 
with tassels and bobberies of silver. She 
had head-dresses of every material and metal. 
Bronze spears, each with an hundred loose 
rings of gold that clashed musically up and 
down the handle, and on each of the rings 
there chimed a little silver bell. She had 
shields and breastplates of solid silver and 
gold, and they were set out with patterns of 
dainty gems. There were quilts of silk and 
fur, cushions that delighted the head or the 
eye that rested on them. She had bird- 
cages of ivory and crystal. Beds that had 
been chipped out of monster blocks of 
amethyst. Cups of carved ivory, each with 
a different gem set inside at the bottom so 
that it twinkled at you while you drank. 
Chess-boards of precious metals, and each 
man on the board had occupied the cunning 
artificer a long year of his age to fashion it. 


30 


CH. V DEIRDRE 


She had her own machinery for brewing and 
baking. What had she not got? Her 
dresses alone would pack a house and burst 
out through the roof and tumble down the 
glass of her Sunny Chamber like an untimely 
sunset for colour, and like a billow of the 
sea for exuberance. 

She did not intend that as much as one 
thread of her threads should remain behind 
her in Emain Macha. 

“No other queen shall waggle her toes 
in my draperies, nor enjoy what is proper for 
my enjoyment alone,” thought Maeve. 

Conachur was preparing to go on a visit 
to Cairbre Niafar, King of Leinster, for he 
thought an alliance could be formed from 
which good might possibly come to Ulster. 
The neighbouring kingdom of Connacht 
had grown strong and stronger, and he 
knew that the people of that kingdom would 
be glad to think that Leinster and he 
remained at arm’s length. 

He would travel in state, and such a 
journey had to be organized carefully. 
Houses for rest and entertainment on the 
way must be arranged for. Heralds and 
messengers sent days in advance and dis- 


31 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


positions made so that their reports might 
be received on his journey. Several thou- 
sand men would be in his company, and 
the shelter, feeding, and entertainment of 
these had to be thought of. So for a little 
time he was busy. But he was not too busy 
to remark anything that might chance to be 
remarkable. 


Lavarcham sat with him in his retired 
room at the centre of the Royal Branch. 
From this room the great circular mass of 
his palace radiated in all directions to its 
ten-acre circumference, and in this deep- 
placed, well-secured centre the king sat, as a 
spider might sit in the middle of his gigantic 
web. The room he occupied was sufficiently 
large. ‘The ceiling was an intricate medley 
and very encrustation of carved wood, and 
pushing out of that chaotic centre came a 
great shoulder and a grotesque head which 
held in its mouth a bronze chain with a 
crystal ball swinging from it, and that ball 
was so round and pure it seemed to be 
one great drop of clear water. Sometimes 
Cathfa came here, and would read matters 
in the crystal to the king. The walls of 


32 


CH. V DEIRDRE 


the room were panelled in polished red oak, 
and between each oaken panel was a panel 
of ruddy bronze, with a silver rail above it, 
and a golden bird was perched at the end of 
each rail ; so that the light from the torches 
gleamed gently again from the walls and 
multiplied itself in faint winks and reflec- 
tions about the room. ‘There was one large 
chair there and a small stool. 

Lavarcham was seated on the stool. She 
was permitted to rest in her master’s pre- 
sence, for she usually had much to say to 
him and he always found her interesting. 

“Good my soul,” said the king. ‘I 
am glad that you are a woman.” 

“T am not badly contented about that 
myself,’ she smiled. 

“For,” he continued, ‘if you had been a 
man I should have been afraid of you.” 

‘* How so, master ?”’ 

“ Because you could have taken my king- 
dom whenever you wanted it.” 

‘Indeed, master, I would not accept a 
kingdom if I got one as a present. ‘There 
is too much responsibility and there is too 
much to do.” 

‘It is no lie,” he conceded. 


33 D 


i 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


“T like,” she continued, “to do my work, 
and then I like to forget my work, but if I 
had the bad luck to be a king, or a queen, 
I should never again know what a rest 
meant, as you, my dear master, do not know 
what it is to rest yourself.” 

“Still,” said the king smilingly, “the 
queen does get an occasional rest.”’ 

‘“A king wants rest but cannot get it, a 
queen, however, may not feel the need to 
rest, and may not wish for it.” 

‘“ How do you intend that, my friend?” 

‘J mean that a woman gives herself up 
more than a man does, and when she so 
gives herself to love or power or hate, she 
gives all that she has, where a man may 
keep back something.” 

‘But the queen, Lavarcham, as you have 
spoken of her, what do you think of her?” 

“How would I dare to think about the 
queen, master ?”’ 

“Do you like her?” he insisted. 

‘‘ She is very lovely.” 

‘I perceive that you do not love the 
queen,’’ said he, and then, after a moment, 
but severely—‘“‘do you love me, Lavar- 
cham?” 


34 


CH. V DEIRDRE 


“T do love you indeed,” she answered 
gravely. 

“But,” he insisted, “do you love any- 
body else as well as me?”’ 

‘*T love nobody else except my babe.” 

“Ah, that fabulous babe! Is she still 
getting new teeth, or what is it she is getting 
now?” 

‘She is getting to be a beautiful young 
girl, master.” 

‘“Ah, yes, you told me that.” 

‘She is thirteen years of age.” 

‘But tell me now, my heart, why did 
you draw the talk a moment ago to queens 
and their hate and restlessness ?”’ 

‘Indeed, master, I did not draw the talk 
round in that way.” 

mekernaps, “he mused, “the queen’ has 
not treated you courteously.” 

seyou sare wrong  indéed,”) she said 
happily, “for this whole week past the queen 
has been most kind to me.” 

“* Ah! ’) 

‘ And to-day she called me ‘her Dear Branch, 
Lavarcham,’ and spoke with me for an hour.” 

“Ah!” said Conachur. ‘‘ Have you been 
among her women?”’ 


Se) 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


‘““T have, master.”’ 

‘And her men?”’ 

Pele too. 

“What have you found?”’ 

“Nothing, master. Not a word, not a 
wink, not a stare, not a hesitation, not an 
eagerness, not a question. I found nothing.” 

‘And in the queen what did you notice?” 

‘‘ Affection for me, master.”’ 

‘““T wish I were not going away,” said the 
king. He stood from his chair and strode 
weightily in the room. 

‘‘T too wish it,” his companion agreed. 

He halted and regarded her gravely. 

‘“Be very friendly with the queen,” he 
counselled. 

But Lavarcham smiled pityingly at him. 

‘“Why should I waste my time?” said 
she. 

He nodded at that also, and became 
deeply and unhappily thoughtful. 


36 


CHAPTER VI 


MAEVE had her own bodyguard of soldiers, 
close on one thousand men, who had come 
with her from Connacht, and from whom 
she refused to be parted. She was herself 
their captain, and each man of them was 
devoted to her. They were mostly her 
own countrymen, and she drilled and exer- 
cised and was good to them with untiring 
patience and skill. She was the mother of 
the force, but a wag called her the wife of 
the regiment. ‘These thousand men were in 
Conachur’s mind as he arranged his visit to 
Leinster. He had often thought he must 
disband this force and replace it by his own 
men, or that he must win its allegiance and 
destroy it, so he also had been especially 
kind to the strange soldiers. 

Now, on the eve of his journey, he thought 


37 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


it would be a good thing to bring them 
with him to Leinster; thus, as he explained 
to Maeve, giving them entertainment and 
exercise, while at the same time doing honour 
to his queen and her native province. But 
the proposition raised such a dreadful ire in 
the queen, she trod the chamber in such 
dudgeon and was so free in her speech that 
Conachur hastily and good-humouredly with- 
drew the suggestion; and bade her bear the 
soldiers’ discontent when they learned who 
stood between them and one of the pleasantest 
marches that a soldier could have. 

Indeed, an argument with Maeve was not 
to be lightly undertaken. It was likely to 
last a long time in the first place, and in 
the second, she had so precipitate a manner 
of speech and so copious a command of 
words that the listener’s mind quickly began 
to feel as if it were in a whirlpool, his head 
would fly round and round, and he must run 
away lest his brains burst out from his ears 
and he die giddily. 

No one but Conachur could hearken to 
Maeve’s speech on such occasions, and he 
only did it when he particularly wanted to. 
For, at times, that which would drive 


38 


CH. VI DEIRDRE 


another man mad had a strangely soothing 
effect on him, and he could sit under that 
shrill tornado as peacefully as a daisy sits 
in the sunshine. At times, as one forces a 
restive horse much farther than it desires 
to go, he would impel into the brief tail- 
end of her sentence a philosophic and peace- 
fulinterjection which acted on her as the 
spur on the horse, so that he would drive 
her beyond the very bounds of utterance, 
and she would at last, from sheer tongue- 
weariness, topple from the peaks of speech 
into a silence so profound that nothing it 
seemed could ever draw her thence again; 
and then Conachur would talk to her sooth- 
ingly, reasonably, unforgivably, and it was 
Maeve would run. 

But this time Conachur fled: he was in 
no mood and had not the time for argu- 
ment; he knew she would not yield, and 
he was so angry and hurried that he could 
not be the patient, humorous, and watchful 
comrade he had intended to be. 

When he spoke of this matter to Lavar- 
cham he did not speak with good humour, 
but he did not empty his mind even to the 
convyersation-woman. It was not necessary. 


39 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


‘When I return from Leinster gy)” 
said he. 

But the wise woman nodded only a half- 
hearted agreement, for she thought that, 
although it might only take two days to 
bury a thousand men, it would take a long 
time to bury those who would march to 
avenge them. 

The rage and agitation into which his 
suggestion had thrown the queen was so 
ereat that she fell ill, and could not accom- 
pany her husband to Leinster. So that, as 
on a previous occasion, he had. to travel 
without her, the understanding being that 
she would take the road after him and, 
travelling more lightly, could perhaps catch 
on his company before they reached Naas, 
the court and capital of the King of Leinster. 

With his force, but unknown to it, there 
went a youth—a long-striding, active, bull- - 
like young man with a freckled face and red 
hair, and than whom there was no more 
jovial person in all Ireland, for if a man was 
striking at him with a spear he could make 
that man laugh so much that he would not 
be able to hit straight. His name was mac 
Roth. He was Maeve’s personal servant, 


40 


CH. VI DEIRDRE 


her herald. But just as the word ‘‘con- 
versation-woman’’ cloaked another occupa- 
tion for Lavarcham, so the word “herald” 
hid the same usefulness in mac Roth. He 
was Maeve’s personal spy, but he also was 
her herald, and in after days, because of his 
knowledge, address, and courage, he was to 
be the chief herald of all Ireland. 

He accompanied Conachur’s force, but 
he was not with it. He was a mile in 
advance, or a perch behind, or he was to 
the right of it just at a small distance, or he 
was looking from a hill on the left as the gay 
cavalcade and silver-shining chariots went by 
in the valley. 

He accompanied them in that manner 
unseen for two days, and then, murmuring 
a blessing on them and on their encamp- 
ment, he left them in the night, taking from 
them the loan of an unwatched horse, and 
he rode back by short cuts to Emain. 

When he reached the palace he was able 
to report that the king had gone so far he 
could not easily turn back; and at that 
news Maeve’s illness departed from her as 
suddenly as it had come. 

In the morning she called for twenty of 


41 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


the chief men of her bodyguard and gave 
them careful, separate instruction. “Then 
she informed the domestics that her quarters 
must be thoroughly cleaned while the king 
was away, and that everything she owned 
must be put out on the sunny lawn for 
airing and counting. ; 

The palace chamberlain came in great 
haste, but that suave man was soothed by 
Maeve and sent away with his dignity un- 
hurt, but his mind exercised. He com- 
municated his news to Lavarcham, who had 
retired to the company of her ‘“‘babe”’ out- 
side Emania. Within the hour Lavarcham 
despatched a flying messenger to Conachur, 
but just outside the city mac Roth, who was 
waiting for him in a hedge, buzzed a spear 
through that man’s back as he went thunder- 
ing past. But in the night Lavarcham, who 
left little to chance, sent other messengers, 
so that if some miscarried others would not. 

But Maeve’s plan was at work, the men 
she had chosen for a particular part were 
acting in that part, and inside of ten hours 
her company was deployed behind her 
baggage, her march to Connacht had begun, 
and Conachur was a bachelor again. 


42 


CHAPTER VII 


IT was as well that the king was in Leinster 
at the time of Maeve’s flight. Had he 
been nearer home he would have been 
obliged to do something, and, in such a 
situation, to do anything is to be ridiculous. 
He knew Maeve too well to imagine that 
she would return for a threat, yet he made 
the threats which seemed politic, for that 
was a matter of course. 

But the messengers who bore these rigor- 
ous intimations to her father bore others to 
Maeve, and in these the son of Ness was 
humble as no one could imagine possible, 
and as his counsellors might not have deemed 
advisable. 

There was no arrangement which she 
might have suggested that he would not 
have agreed to, but the difference between 


43 


DEIRDRE BK.1 


them was too radical to be spanned by 
arrangements. 

Maeve was proud; she was vain to boot, 
and could not consent to be second to any 
one. Living with Conachur she had to be 
second, whatever he or she might desire. 
Indeed, living with him anywhere she would 
have to take second place, for the first place 
came to him so naturally, with such ease 
and finality, it could not be questioned or 
revoked, or contrived in any way. 

More, and worse, she detested him for 
he had always dared her and succeeded. 
She, it is true, had dared him, and on this 
occasion had succeeded. But she could not 
live with him and dare him competently, 
which is just what he could do with her. 
Even if he abdicated the throne to her he 
would keep the sceptre, and she could no 
more take it from him than she could have 
abstracted the speed from the lightning. 
If she came back to Emania she would come 
back dead, or, should it happen that she 
did come back alive, the king would at last 
have to kill her or she would kill the king. 
Conachir knew it, and at last renounced 
his vain embassies and hopes. 


44 





CH. VII DEIRDRE 


If we should wonder why he sent them, or 
why he should hope, the answer lay in his 
character. That clever energetic man could 
not exist with a tame mate. A mere bodily 
satisfaction he, sated in such satisfactions, 
would have exhausted in a week, and there- 
after he would be without a refreshment 
which is as much of the mind as of the body, 
and which, to one of his temperament, has 
always most of the mind even when it seems 
fleshy to beastliness. She satisfied cravings 
of his nature which he himself but dimly 
understood; and if, with her, the mistress 
was more apparent than the wife, therein 
lies the desire and doom of a clever man. 

For he was diabolically clever, and, so, 
not wise, and, so, not great. Only the great 
escape slavery, and he was the slave to his 
ego and would be whipped. A great man 
would not, because he could not, take mean 
advantages. But the manner in which 
Conachur ousted Fergus from his throne 
will command the admiration of his peers 
only, and obtain from them the justification 
which success requires. And yet he could 
retain the love of his victim, the trust of 
his people. He was so near to greatness; 


45 


DEIRDRE BK.t fl 


there were such sterling qualities running 
with the egotism; he could be so mild in 
difficulties, so clear-sighted in counsel; he 
could be so staunch a friend; he could for- 
give with such royal liberality; he could 
spend himself so endlessly for his realm. 
Cichulain did not think of him as a bad 
man, nor did Fergus; and as to the latter, 
he loved and honoured Conachur above the 
men of Ireland. Was that a defect or a 
merit in Fergus? Was he too great or too 
simple? But it was not for clever tricks he 
admired Conachtr, nor was it for tricks that 
his people referred to him as the ‘“ wide- 
eyed, majestic king.”’ 

However he bore the flight in public 
he mourned for and craved for Maeve in 
private, and the illness which comes to a 
baulked will fell on him, corroding his mind 
and his temper, so that even Lavarcham 
left him as much alone as her duties per- 
mitted. 

Again and again by an effort of the will 
he would arouse from that sour brooding to 
throw himself into work and into the grave 
joviality which had once been his note; but, 
as instantly, he would relapse visibly to any 


46 


sla 


CH. VII DEIRDRE 


eye, and might stare so sardonically and un- 
comprehendingly on a suppliant that the 
latter would be glad to go away with his 
tale unlistened to. 

Matters were thus when a new plan began 
to brood in Lavarcham’s mind, so that when 
she looked on her babe again it began to 
seem that she looked on a queen, for she 
intended to marry Deirdre to Conachir. 

All Ulster wished the king to marry 
again, for a celibate prince is a scandal to 
the people. 

It was the constant effort of those re- 
sponsible in the State to marry off a young 
prince almost as soon as he came to the age 
of puberty. For such youngsters are great 
rovers, with appetites as gluttonous as dogs, 
and so care-free that they are surprised 
and indignant if others question the action 
which they do not themselves weigh. It is 
certainly a hardship and a tyranny if a 
neighbour should constrain a_neighbour’s 
wife to his own domestic uses, but it is only 
a hardship because the affair occurs between 
equals, among whom friendly observances 
are due, and between whom equal respect 
is grounded. Among equals anything that 


47, 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


implies inequality is a punishable wrong: 
but there is no hardship when the superior 
takes what he carelessly desires. It is com- 
munity of interests which makes equals, 
and the disturbance of this which makes 
enemies; but there is no community of 
interests between the prince and the subject, 
and no man is aggrieved by an action which 
can only affect his honour by increasing it. 
Nevertheless, so illogical is the mind of 
man, and so uncompromising is the sense 
of property, that men could be found who 
would interrupt with a spear the careless 
pleasure of a prince; and there were some, 
blacksmiths mostly and cobblers, who would 
take a cudgel to the king’s majesty itself 
and beat it out of a warm bed. 

So, when Lavarcham thought that she 
might conduct her ward between the lax 
arms of her sovereign, she but harboured an 
idea which every male person in the realm 
who had a wife, a sister, or a daughter, 
hoped for with fervour. 

Nor did the idea occur only to her. 

Within a month of Maeve’s disappearance 
more young ladies began to appear in 
Emania than had been noticed there previ- 


48 


CH. VII DEIRDRE 


ously, so that Conachur, had he been in a 
condition to observe such things, might have 
noticed that Ulster had begun to blossom 
like the rose. 

But plottings such as these were of small 
use in the case of a man like Conachur, 
and it is likely that the first person to know 
what should be done and what was expected 
from the head of the State was the king 
himself. His duty as a king would point 
him the way: the necessity to repair what 
had been damaged would claim his mind; 
and the desire to forget by replacing would 
be even more insistent; for if a hair of the 
dog that bit you is the specific against 
drunkenness, it is a medicine against love 
also, and is, alas, the only one we know 
of. 

Therefore the king did for a while take 
a fevered interest in the ladies of his court, 
but he found, so jaundiced was his eye, 
that they were neither worth looking at nor 
worth talking to, and he did not grudge 
their companionship to any man. 


To Lavarcham, at last, he opened his 
mind. 


49 E 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


‘‘] must marry, Lavarcham, my soul.” 

‘There is plenty of time for that, master,” 
said the wily woman. 

“While I have no _ wife,’ Conachtr 
replied, ‘‘the people will talk of the wife 
I had, and the only way to stop that is to 
give them something else to talk of.” 

‘It is true, indeed,” said Lavarcham. 

“I foresee,’ he continued, ‘that I shall 
be compelled to marry some one I do not 
care for.) 

‘‘In that case, master, you will be saved 
the trouble of choosing, for you may take 
the first that comes.” 

‘They seem to resemble one another 
like peas in a pod. Are women all alike, 
my friend?” 

‘They are much of a pattern, master.” 

‘And yet »’ said the king, brooding 
deeply on one that had fled. 

“Our little ward,’ Lavarcham continued 
thoughtfully, “is rather unusual.” 

‘“What age is she now?” said the dull 
king. 

‘Sixteen years and a few months.” 

‘So much. We must think of marry- 
ing her to some friend. Perhaps one of our 


50 





CH. VII DEIRDRE 


kinsmen of Scotland. I must be reminded 
again of it.” 

‘“Come and see her, master, and then 
you will be able to decide how she should 
be disposed of.” 

‘T shall go to see her some day.” 


51 


CHAPTER VIII 


DEIRDRE’S education in the art of the king 
continued, but it proceeded now somewhat 
obliquely to its former trend. 

What woman in Lavarcham’s place could 
avoid treating her master’s later affairs with- 
out something of sentimentality creeping 
into the terms? And what young girl 
could regard Maeve otherwise than as a 
heroine for having dared so shocking a 
scandal, and such a round of perils. As 
Lavarcham detailed Maeve, Deirdre inter- 
preted her, and at the close of the statement 
the judgement of each was so different, so 
opposed, that a third person might have 
marvelled at the tricks the understanding 
can play; for what was black to the one 
was not only white to the other, but it was 
crimson and purple and gold; and what 


52 


CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


was treachery to Lavarcham gleamed on 
Deirdre like a candid sunrise. 

We assimilate knowledge less through our 
intellects than through our temperaments; 
and a young person can by no effort look 
through the eyes of an older. There are 
other ways by which a mutual perception 
can be so deflected that the same thing is 
not similarly viewed, and so Lavarcham’s 
appreciation of Maeve’s conduct would 
differ from Conachitr’s, as his would be 
unlike Cathfa’s or Bricriu’s or Fergus 
mac Roy’s, and as these would be obscure 
to one another. The element of self- 
interest in each would act as a prism, and 
each would understand as much of the tale 
as he desired to understand, but no more, 
and would forgive or condemn on these 
arrested findings. 

To Lavarcham Maeve’s flight was treach- 
ery and deserved punishment; but it was 
not, in her thought, a misfortune for which 
even Conachur need weep. She had thor- 
oughly disliked Maeve, for though she 
could impose on every one she could not 
impress that imperious lady, and she had 
never dared tell one half of Maeve’s doings 


93 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


lest the violent queen should suspect, and 
loose a slash that would cut her in two 
halves in the very presence of the king. 

The departure of Maeve meant also the 
departure of mac Roth, and to be free from 
that jovial, crafty eye was so great a relief 
that Lavarcham could have wept in thank- 
fulness ; for to be a spy is a simple thing, 
an occupation like any other, but to be spied 
upon when one is a spy is a monstrous inver- 
sion of what is proper, and might easily give 
one palpitations of the heart. 

Mac Roth had her frightened, and could 
have cowed her any time he wished. In 
her own craft he was her master, for, after 
all, she was only a household spy, but he was 
a—spy. She could glean from the kitchen 
or the Sunny Chamber everything that was 
there; but she must have walls about her and 
work behind those; while mac Roth did not 
mind whether he was in a room or in a forest; 
he would spy in a bee-hive; he would spy 
on the horned end of the moon; he would 
spy in the middle of the sea, and would know 
which wave it was that drowned him, and 
which was the wave that urged it on. 

Lavarcham was not only glad that Maeve 


54 





CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


was gone, she was jubilant; and, moreover, 
it gave her an opportunity that she could 
scarcely have hoped for to advance her babe 
in life without parting from her, and to 
strengthen all her own grips on fortune. 
Hitherto, when she had spoken of Cona- 
chur to Deirdre she spoke of the king’s 
majesty, but now, insensibly, she began to 
talk of a great man bowed under misfortune 
-and a proper subject for female pity. But 
she could not wipe out the king’s majesty 
with that sponge nor alter one lineament of 
the portrait she had taken ten years to limn. 
The king persisted for Deirdre, stern 
and aloof and almost incredibly ancient, 
looming out from and overshadowing her 
infancy like a fairy tale; and was he not 
contemporary with Lavarcham, herself old 
enough to be remembered but not thought 
of. Deirdre was interested in the king as 
she was interested in the people of the Shi,* 
without expectation, and with a little fear. 
But to her reasonings and _ objections 
Lavarcham had one answer: 
‘“My soul and dear treasure, you cannot 
speak about men for you have not seen any.” 
*The Shi= Fairyland. 


55 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


And at last one day Deirdre replied: 

‘Indeed, mother, I have seen them, these 
men you tell me of.” 

Lavarcham stared at her. 

“And,” the gleeful child continued, “I 
have spoken to them.”’ 

Her foster-mother became smoother than 
silk, and soft as the lap of kindness. 

‘Tell me about that, my one love, and 
tell me how men seem to you now that you 
have seen them.” 

“Tt is not hard to tell,” replied Deirdre; 
‘“men are as ugly as donkeys, and,” she 
continued, ‘‘they are just as nice.”’ 

“As ugly and as nice as donkeys!” 
Lavarcham quoted in a daze. 

‘“Yes, mother, and I love them because 
they are so nice and ugly and good.” 

‘But what men are you talking of, my 
star?” 

“T am talking of the men outside the 
walls.” 

“vthervuards t+. 

‘Of course.” 

‘And when did you see them?” 

Deirdre laughed. 

“Why, I have seen them ever since I 


56 


CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


was that height,” and she poised her hand 
two feet above the ground. 

Lavarcham laughed at her and waggled 
a reproving finger. 

“You have not seen them very often, 
all the same.”’ 

‘“‘T have indeed,” the girl replied triumph- 
antly. ‘‘I have seen them every day of my 
life for the last ten years.” 

‘“And you spoke to them?” 

‘““Of course I did. I know every one of 
them as well as I know you.” 

‘“You do not, Deirdre!” 

‘““T do so: I know their names, and who 
they are married to, and how many children 
they have. O, I know everything about 
them.”’ 

“Sly little fairy of the hills,” cried her 
perplexed guardian, “‘you are poking fun 
at Lavarcham.”’ 

‘I surely am not,” Deirdre replied posi- 
tively. 

‘Well, tell me about these men that are 
ugly and nice like donkeys.” 

‘Very well,” cried Deirdre, ‘‘I shall prove 
to you that I know them.” 

“You must know,” she narrated, ‘that 


57 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


each of these men is always at the same 
place outside the wall, but some of them 
are on guard during the day-time and others 
are on guard during the night. Every 
second week they change this order and the 
ones that have been on duty in the night 
take up day duty, and the day men replace 
them; and so they change and change 
about, year in and year out, under the 
charge of two captains and eight ancients. 
There are an hundred of these men alto- 
gether; twenty-five of them march from 
point to point all around the walls during 
the day, but in the night seventy-five men 
march to and from smaller points. In the 
day also, one captain and two ancients 
march around and overlook the twenty-five 
guards, but a captain and six ancients march 
about the men who are on duty at night.” 

‘ Ah-ha,” cried Lavarcham, “you have 
been told all this by the women servants.” 

‘They only tell me tales of the men of 
Dana and of the Shi, and of how their 
children were born, and of the proper way 
to cure pimples.” 

“Well, tell me more,” sighed Lavarcham, 
‘until I see what it is that you do know.” 


58 


CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


“The captain of the troop is named Daol, 
but the men call him Fat-face. He has 
fourteen children and is unhappily married, 
for he has told me many times that if he 
had a better wife he would be a better man. 
One day when his wife was baking him a 
cake she baked a spell into it, so that, although 
he had never felt ache or pain before, he 
was racked all that day with torments ; and 
ever since, when the moon changes and the 
wind goes round, he gets pains in his bones, 
and he beats his wife when he gets home 
on the head of it.” 

“You are certainly acquainted with this 
Fat-face.”’ 

“T love him. He wears a great leathern 
belt with a sword hung from it, and, when 
he orders the men, he thrusts his two hands 
down through the belt, stretches his legs 
very wide apart, and roars at them—but 
how he roars! ‘Troop!’ he roars: ‘turn 
by the right hand: trot’; and all the dear 
old men trot with their heads down very 
thoughtfully, until he roars at them to stop 
trotting, and then they all sneeze, and talk 
about their feet. 

‘* Sometimes he lets me drill the men.”’ 


59 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


“He should not,’’ said Lavarcham. 

‘‘He had. to,” the girl replied, “fore 
threw stones at him from the top of the wall 
until he agreed to let me do it. But that 
was a long time ago.” 

“He should have reported all this.” 

‘“Do you mean he should have told on 
me?’ cried Deirdre indignantly. ‘Indeed 
I should like to see Fat-face daring to tell 
anything about me. Why, the men would 
beat him if he told. I would get down off 
the wall and beat him myself.” 


CHAPTER IX 


THIS conversation greatly exercised Lavar- 
cham, and she cast about for some means 
whereby she might restrain her ward. It 
was waste of time, as she quickly saw, for 
who that has been charged with a young 
person aged sixteen has not been forced at 
last to renounce all real guardianship. 

At that age the time has passed for pro- 
hibitions, and the time has not yet come 
when advice can be listened to except in the 
form of flattery. The young body is eager 
for experience, and will be satisfied with 
nothing less actual, so the older person must 
grant freedom of movement or be run to 
death by that untiring energy. For a while 
the youngster will drink deeply, secretly, of 
her own will, and will then disengage for 
herself that which is serious and enduring 


61 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


from that which is merely pleasant and 
unprofitable. For all people who are not 
mentally lacking are sober-minded by in- 
stinct, and when the eager limbs have had 
their way the being looks inwardly, pining 
to exercise the mind and to equip itself for 
true existence. 

At fourteen years of age Deirdre was not 
the untameable little savage she had been at 
twelve, and at the age of sixteen she had 
begun to long for some one to whom she 
might submit her will and from whom she 
could receive the guidance and wisdom and 
refreshment which she divined to be in 
herself, but which she could not reach. 

Her fury of activity would be broken by 
equal periods of languor, wherein she would 
sit as in a daze, staring at the sky and 
not seeing it, or looking at the grass with 
a vague wonder as to what this was upon 
which her eyes were resting. Wild creatures 
or tame would trot or amble before her, 
but she was only conscious of a movement 
without a form. A bird might light and flirt 
and hop and fly, and her forsaken mind 
would touch those facts without gaining 
information from them, and would lose 


62 


CH. Ix DEIRDRE 


itself behind the movement vaguely, blindly, 
dizzily, until the bird mixed into the sky 
and the sky rounded and receded and 
disappeared, leaving her eyes nothing to 
rest on and her errant mind without any 
support. 

She would look on her arms, as they hung 
helplessly in the grass, and wonder that they 
were so unoccupied, and wonder that they 
were so empty. And an oppression came to 
her heart, gentle enough, but without end, as 
though something stirred there that could 
not stir, as though something sought to 
weep and could not weep; so that she must 
weep for it, and grieve for it, and be of a 
tenderness to that unknown beyond all the 
tenderness that she had sensed about her. 
And these idle tears would arouse, or assuage 
her, so that she wondered why she wept, and 
she would leap from such nonsense and speed 
away like one distraught with excess of life 
and energy. 

She would become affectionate then. She 
mothered the cow and its lanky calf; the 
peeping rabbit and her popping brood. 
The shaggy mare and her dear, shy 
foaleen, an arm about each neck, listened 


63 


DEIRDRE BK.1 


to a conversation they loved and seemed to 
understand. When she tried to leave them 
they trotted behind with gentle, persistent 
feet and eyes of such pleading that she must 
run passionately back, crying that she would 
come again, that she would surely come 
back to them on the morrow. ‘There was 
not a nest she did not know of, and the 
young grey mother, snuggling among the 
leaves, would look gravely out at the grey eye 
that peeped within, and would hearken to a 
cooing so delicious, so burthened with love, 
that her broody hour would pass uncounted, 
and she would forget her mate abroad, and 
the wide airs of the tree-tops. 

At night the moon could woo her so 
passionately she must forsake her bed and 
go tiptoe among dark corridors until she 
came into the presence. What wild counsel 
did she receive from the glowing queen! 
Or was it the unmoving quietude that whis- 
pered without words; intimations of—what? 
Shy touches at the heart, so that she, who 
feared nothing, would look about her, 
startled as a young roe, who senses some- 
thing on the wind, and flies without more 
query. 

64. 


CH. Ix DEIRDRE 


How lovely to her was that suspense and 
fear, when her every nerve thrilled to a life 
more poignant than she had surmised; 
when something that did not happen was 
perpetually occurring; when, as it were in a 
moment, she might be told—what secrets! 
or be cautioned of something imminent and 
advised ! 

She lost herself in the moon, wooing it, 
wooed by it, until she seemed to move in 
the moon, and the moon to move in her; a 
sole whiteness, a sole chillness, one equal 
potency—For what? for that, for it, for 
something, for nothing, for everything. 
She submitted her destiny to the delicate 
sweet lady of the sky, and one night, beck- 
oned to, drawn at, surrounded, a small 
moon shining in the moon, she went on 
and on, passing the grass to the turf; leaving 
the turf for the stony places; from there to 
the wall, and over the wall also; so lightly, 
so imperceptibly, so moonily, the drowsy 
guard did not see; or if he saw twas but a 
moonbeam that rose and fell, that fluttered 
and faded, that lapsed over a piece of hollow 
ground and glimmered away on the slope, 
merging in the silver flood and the shades 


65 F 


DEIRDRE BK. 1 


of ebony, and gone while he rubbed his 
eyes. 

So she marched towards destiny. 

She went among the darkness of trees, 
and farther, where the wood grew thin, 
into a dappled dancing of jet and silver; 
and, beyond, to where young voices called 
and called and called. 

Such fresh young voices she had never 
heard before, used as she was to the dry, 
clipped utterance of Lavarcham, the tooth- 
less mumble of the servants, the rusty bawling 
of Fat-face as of an obstinate door that told 
of aches and reluctances, and the wheezing 
and grunting of his stiff companions. She 
stayed listening to those voices, young as 
her own, and as sweet; rattling like the 
waters that tumble and ride in the river; 
chattering like a nestful of young birds in 
spring; soaring up and falling down with 
an infinite eagerness and joy; until it 
seemed that a lark’s song and the flight of a 
swallow had come together and fused into 
one streaming of sound. 

Standing behind a vast black tree her 
astonished heart released itself in tears, and 
she wept for her cloistered youth, and 


66 


CH. Ix DEIRDRE 
for all that she did not know she had 


missed. 

Then boldly she trod forward and sat 
herself resolutely at the camp-fire of the 
sons of Uisneac. 


67, 


CHAPTER X 


THEY received her with the scant show of 
surprise which youth, so proud of appear- 
ances, so jealous of its own dignity, extends 
to the unknown, and, after the brief word 
of welcome, and swift surmising glance, the 
conversation which she had _ interrupted 
renewed itself, perhaps a shade more boister- 
ously because they had been surprised, a 
little more hardily because they knew one 
was listening who was not of their company 
and might be critical. 

Soon, in their own despite, something 
ceremonious crept on them, overpowering 
their boisterousness and making each self- 
conscious, until, by the inevitable degrees, 
silence hovered and threatened about the 
fire, and for moments nothing moved but 
the eye that flickered and wandered into 


68 


CH. x DEIRDRE 


woodland vistas, where delicate dark trees 
stood rimmed in silver, and everything on 
the ground crept and fled as the boughs 
swayed and the moon spilled through them. 

But the silence only endured long enough 
for the look to become frank and the mutual 
examination a judgement. Then the eldest 
of the three boys seized the conversation to 
himself and upheld it, for he saw that their 
guest was so afflicted with shyness that she 
could not move hand or foot, and could not 
have replied if one had addressed her. 

' He spoke for occupation also, because, 
having looked at her, he feared or was too 
shy to look again; feared, too, that the others 
might observe his embarrassment; and, being 
one to whom action was a first habit, he 
did what he could do when he found that 
there was something which he could not do. 

He did it well. 

Listening to him Deirdre knew what was 
the mid surge of the stream she had listened 
to, the top singing of the song she had 
heard. This was the lark sustained at the 
top of flight, and the others the mazy pattern 
of the swallows’ wings. Listening she could 
collect herself; and, in a while, daring to 


69 


DEIRDRE ‘ BK. I 


hear, she dared to see, and then she heard 
no more; for when the eye is filled the ear 
is no more attended, and all that may be of 
beauty is there englobed, radiant, sufficient, 
excessive. 

How should I paint Naoise* as Deirdre 
saw him, or show Deirdre as she appeared 
to the son of Uisneac? For than Deirdre 
there was no girl so beautiful unless it might 
be Emer the daughter of Forgall, soon to 
be wooed by Cichulinn; and Naoise him- 
self could not be bettered by any among 
the men of his Jand unless it was by the 
‘small, dark man, comeliest of the men of 
Eire,’ Cuchulinn himself. 

When we endeavour to tell of these 
things words cannot stand the trial. It may 
be done by music, or by allusion, as. the 
poets have always done, saying that this girl 
is like the moon, or like the Sky-Woman of 
the Dawn, when they would indicate a beauty 
beyond what we know; and that she is like 
a rose when they would tell of a gentle and 
proud sweetness; that her wrist is crisp and 
delicate like the delicate foam that mantles 
on a sunny tide; that the wise bee nestled 

* Naoise=pron. neesh-eh, 


7O 


cH. x DEIRDRE 


in her bosom, finding more of delight there 
than the hive gives; that she walks as a 
cloud, or as a queen-woman of the sky, seen 
only in vision, so that all other sights are 
but half seen thereafter and are scarcely 
remembered. 

In these grave ways we may approach 
perfection, indicating distantly that which 
cannot be unveiled in speech; or we may 
tell of the abasement which comes on the 
heart when beauty is seen; the sadness 
which is sharper than every other sadness; 
the despair that overshadows us when the 
abashed will concedes that though it would 
overbear everything it cannot master this, 
and that here we renounce all claim; for 
beauty is beyond the beast, and like all 
else of quality it can only be apprehended 
by its equal and enjoyed where it gives 
itself. 

Still, they were young, and with young 
people impressions that come quickly go as 
fast. They have so much in common; 
their interest in the present is so quick; 
their faith in the future so fearless; their 
memory of tenderness is so recent, and their 
experience of treachery so small, that friend- 


71 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


ship comes easier to them than enmity does, 
and trust grows where suspicion withers; 
so in a little time they were again at ease, 
and when the food they had been preparing 
was eaten they knew one another and were 
friends. 

Naoise was then almost nineteen years of 
age, his brother Ainnle, seventeen, and 
Ardan more than fourteen, while Deirdre 
herself was almost a full sixteen years. 

If she had listened before as it were to 
the chattering of a brook or the outburst 
of a flight of birds, she now listened to a 
talk that was like a mill-race for exuberance, 
and the cawing of a colony of rooks for 
abundance; and yet, when she remembered 
it afterwards, she could not remember much, 
or she recollected that they laughed more 
than they spoke. For the talk consisted 


more of questions than anything else, and 


the answer to each query was in nearly all 
cases an outbreak of laughter and another 
question. 

Do you remember the day Cuchulinn 
came playing hurley into Emain? 

And the way he took the troop under his 
protection? 


72 


CH. X DEIRDRE 


And the night he went out a boy and 
came back a hound? 

Jokes, hinted at, that had been played 
on foster-fathers; grisly jokes of the first 
combat of a comrade who had left his head 
where his feet should be; questions that 
hinted at outrageous parties in the night, 
when the boys chased a wild boar and 
their fathers and foster-fathers hunted them; 
of punishments that had been evaded as a 
fox dodges a dog, and behold, when safety 
had been found, there was the punishment 
awaiting them. 

They were young, but they had killed; 
and they rocked with glee as they told by 
what marvellous strategy they had got in 
the lucky blow, and how the champion had 
gone down never to rise again, and they 


had trotted home squealing and squawking 


with joy, with a head surveying the world 
from the top of a spear, and it grinning 
down on them as joyously as they chattered 
up at it. 

Names that Deirdre was unfamiliar with, 
and some that she knew from the servants’ 
talk, flew from mouth to mouth. Conall 
the Victorious, Bricric the Prank-player, 


73 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


Laeri called the Triumphant, Fergus mac 
Roy, these youngsters spoke of as familiarly 
as she might have told of the birds in her 
garden, and criticized them with all the 
unsparing freedom of youth. 

They did not consider that these great 
men were in any way superior to themselves: 
the contrary was certainly in their minds. 
It was evident that Ardan and Ainnle thought 
their brother Naoise could whip any other 
champion rather easily: but Naoise was 
modest and would say nothing for or against 
this theory. 

Deirdre was as convinced as the boys were 
that Naoise could beat any combination of 
champions that might have the ill-luck to 
move against him. She knew it from his 
complexion, from his curling hair. Oh! 
she knew it from a variety of proofs, and 
she was inclined to be angry when he argued 
with the younger boys that Cuchulinn? 
was the greatest man alive. But on that 
subject the agreement was so unanimous, so 
hearty, that she might doubt but could not 
question it. 

“What I should like,” said Ainnle, 


*Cuchulinn=pron. Ku-hullin, 


74 


CH. x DEIRDRE 


“would be to see a fight and a combat 
between our Cuchulinn and Fergus mac 
Roy.” 

“That would be a fight indeed,’ said 
Naoise, ‘“‘but we shall never see it. They 
love each other.” 

“Tt would be a queer thing,” said Ainnle, 
“if a boy were to fight with his own foster- 
father.” 

“JT heard that a boy once did, and killed 
him too,” said Ardan. 

“Who did? Who did?” 

‘T forget his name.” 

‘Because you never heard it.” 

“Our young Ardan makes things up in 
his head,” said Naoise, in a fatherly voice, 


while Ardan hid his blushes by attending 


to the fire. 
“Do you think,” Ainnle inquired, ‘that 
Cuchulinn could beat Fergus if they fought?” 
Naoise regarded that query judicially. 
‘“‘T don’t know indeed,” he replied. 
“T think Cuchulinn could beat anybody,”’ 


_ Ardan broke in. 


Naoise continued, without regard to his 


_ youngest brother: 


i 
| 


“Tt was Fergus that taught Cuchulinn 
75 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


all his battle feats, and Fergus knows every- 
thing that the Cu knows, but it may easily 
be that our Cucuc does not know all the 
things that Fergus knows.”’ 

‘Fergus,’ cried Ainnle indignantly, 
“would not keep a thing back, for he wants 
Cuchulinn to be the best champion in Eiré.” 

‘“‘T think that is true,” replied the very 
judicial Naoise, “but there are some things 
a fighter knows and can’t teach even if 
he wants to. They are not tricks, they are 
what Conachir calls ways, and Fergus has 
‘ways’ in combat, as if he had been born 
in a fight and could go to sleep in it if he 
wanted to.” 

‘‘Do you remember,” cried Ainnle, “the 
champion that stopped to scratch himself 
while he was fighting ?”’ 

‘Ho, ho,” laughed Ardan. 

‘“And the other champion chipped his 
hind end off while he was bending,” gurgled 
Ainnle. 

‘“Wasn’t that man a great fool?” said 
Ardan solemnly. - 

“No,” laughed Naoise, “‘it was just that 
he thought he had time to do it. I saw 
that combat. It must have been that a 


76 








CH. x DEIRDRE 


wasp or hornet slid into his leg band. He 
gave a jump and a quick bend to get at his 
leg, but the other man jumped after him; 
then he gave another great jump and another 
bend, and he got a little trip at the same 
time—that is how the other champion 
slashed him; but everybody was laughing 
so much that his life was spared, so he kept 
his head if he lost his tail.” 

“Ho, ho, ho!” roared Ardan. 

And it was his laughter that made Deirdre 
part with a squeal of glee which so astonished 
her that she leaped to her feet and fled 
among the trees, and so home. 

She had not spoken to the boys beyond 
the word of blessing and greeting which 
could not be omitted. Ardan and Ainnle 
considered that it was quite right a girl 
should be silent in the presence of champions, 
but Naoise thought it was a pity she did not 
speak, for he was inclined to fancy that her 
voice would be pleasant to listen to. 


7; 


CHAPTER XI 


Ir it rested only with the boys the girls 
might go unmarried, for boys have urgent 
interests and have little of the leisure for . 
dream which girls enjoy. 

They feel, moreover, at a loss in that art 
wherein a girl seems instinctively wise; for — 
as a young bee will undertake untaught the — 
curious angles and subtle perfections of his 
home so a girl will adventure herself in love 
without misgiving and without teaching. 

The secret of the bee and of the girl 
is that they give their whole minds to 
their idea; and this powerful concentration, 
wherein the being comes to a oneness of 
desire, moves to its ends as unerringly as a 
bird wings to the sole hedge he aims for 
among all the hedges of a country-side. | 

So, although Naoise did think again of 
their visitor, his thought of her was but one 


78 














CH. XI DEIRDRE 


among many, for he had grave businesses in 
hand, and, except when he slept, his leisure 
for dreaming was limited. 

He had long since left the Boy Troop at 
Emania. He had performed the feats by 
which an apprentice rises to be a master, 
and a full two years had passed since 
Conachur, in the presence of a solemn con- 
course, had received him into the Red 
Branch, and bestowed on him the armour 
which he had won, and the shield which he 
would honourably guard. 

He was a gentleman by birth, but he was 
now a soldier also, and must lift his hand for 
those who besought protection or against 
those who derided it. He would move 
habitually where death urged about him at 
no greater distance than the length of a 
spear, and he would look upon death as being 
so instant a part of life, that he must woo 
the one as earnestly as he loved the other. 

His thought of Deirdre was also com- 
plicated by the knowledge that she was his 
master’s ward, and his personal loyalty to 
Conachur was such that he would not dwell 
even in imagination on that which belonged 
to the king. 


79 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


Stories of Deirdre had long ago come 
abroad. The fact of her lonely keeping 
lent a romantic charm to gossip, and all 
that was said about her was stressed by 
the singular condition of her birth and 
upbringing. The old servants hinted and 
blinked and nodded, indicating thus a 
beauty for which there was no parallel; and 
the ancient guards, partly in brag, partly in 
truth, lent an aid to the spread of the Deirdre 
rumour. 

These things, however, were to be talked 
about, but they were not to be further 
looked into, for she belonged to the king, 
and curiosity itself went lightly in the pre- 
sence of that notable fact. Therefore, so 
far as a young man could, Naoise put Deirdre 
out of his mind, or only remembered her 


as a delicious apparition, and he warned — 


his brothers that they must on no account 
mention her escapade. 

But if this was the case with the boy it 
was not so with the girl. For good or ill 
her imagination had been captured, and 


through it her senses had awakened. Her © 


fancies had now a home to fly to, and while 
the unrest proper to her years grew as 


8o 


ae 





CH. XI DEIRDRE 


stealthily as her limbs it was no longer un- 
noted. She had a direction and she leaned 
there as ardently and unconsciously as a 
flower turns to the sun. 

Now she became a creature of another 
reverie; no longer staring vaguely into 
space but looking there, and seeing what 
even the wise Lavarcham could not surmise. 

This powerful brooding of desire is a 
magical act, and the object of it does not 
remain entirely unaffected; for even if no 
coherent message is despatched the unrest 
is shared in however diffused a form, and it 
may be that in sleep Naoise was no longer 
the master of his dreams. 

But the real scope of an action is with the 
actor, and Deirdre, brooding on Naoise, was 
Deirdre brooding on herself, and taking 
conscious control and direction of her own 
growth and culture. Lavarcham noticed 
the difference; for when she spoke to the 
girl she was replied to by the woman, and 
she sensed in her ward something intract- 
able, obedient still, and yet as removed from 
her cognizance and so from her control as 
she was herself from the cognizance of any 
person about her. 


SI G 


CHAPTER XII 


THEREFORE, when she next spoke to the king 
her mind was stirred by uneasiness, and she 
had all that feeling of haste and work to be 
done which comes to us when we seem void 
of direction and are yet spurred on to an 
intuitive urgency. 

‘“Lavarcham, my soul,” said Conachur, 
‘““you always get your way, for you insist 
and insist, and at last whatever you wish 
must be done or there is no peace in the 
household or the kingdom.” 

“In good truth,” said Lavarcham, “I 
do not recognize my fault this time.” 

“We forget by repetition,” cried the 
king, “and you have so dinned our ears 
these ages past about your babe that I 
must consent to see her or perish from your 
importunities.”’ 


82 











CH. XII DEIRDRE 


“That I am glad of,” replied Lavarcham, 
“for she is growing and needs other guid- 
ance than I can give. You should find her 
a husband,” said the crafty woman. 

“That must be done,” the king mur- 
mured. 

He was silent for a few minutes, for the 
thought of marriage reminded him of his 
own adventures in that condition, and when 
he spoke it was with an elaborate careless- 
besa) 

‘Have you heard any news of the High 
King?” 

“I have heard, but it is only a rumour, 
that his daughter, the queen Maeve, has 
been married again, and that the High King 
has bestowed on her the kingdom of Con- 
nacht.” 

“A number of our young men,” said he, 
with a hard smile, “Shave for long enough 
disliked that kingdom and_ its people: it 
may become difficult to keep them from 
crossing the border.” 

“One of their men,” said Lavarcham, 
“crosses the Black Pig’s Dyke often 
enough.” 

‘And, woe on it,” said Conachir with 

83 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


a cheerful laugh, “‘he gets back again. We 
must strengthen the Connacht marches, or 
that man will make our fortifications the 
laughter of all Ireland. It is Cet mac 
Magach you speak of.” 

‘Conall Cearnach’s uncle indeed,” Lavar- 
cham replied. 

‘But Conall crosses their borders too,” 
said the king. ‘‘My memory is weaken- 
ing,” he continued, ‘‘ what is it that Conall 
boasts of ?” 

‘Pe boasts that he never goes to sleep 
without the head of another Connachtman 
lying in the crook of his knees.” 

‘‘Some day he may forget to remember 
that Cet mac Magach is his uncle, and if he 
brings that head home we shall give it an 
honourable welcome. But about your babe, 
I shall go and look at her to-morrow. All 
your over-statements will crowd on your 
mind to-morrow, my poor friend, and you 
will be very unhappy.” 

‘“Indeed,’ Lavarcham admitted, ‘we 
look with a loving eye on the person we love 
and so may see less or more than is visible 
to other people.” 

‘In love,” Conachir replied, “we see 


84 











CH. XII DEIRDRE 


only what we love to see, and as that is un- 
real we should not look lovingly on any- 
thing, and so we may get sight of what is 
really visible.” 

“Tt is true, master,’ said Lavarcham 
humbly. 

‘It is with such an eye that I shall look 
on your babe to-morrow.” 

‘Alas! my poor Deirdre,” said Lavar- 
cham. 

“The Troubler has not given much 
trouble yet,” laughed Conachur. 


85 


CHAPTER XIII 


LAVARCHAM went home. 

The sense of urgency and unmeditated 
haste which for some time had been in her 
mind was greater than ever, as though she 
were being pressed to an action, thoroughly 
comprehended indeed, but for which she 
had no plan and no explanation. ‘There 
was something to be done: she knew what 
it was but could not state it: and there was 
also something which prevented its accom- 
plishment; and she was similarly aware and 
unaware of what this latter obstruction was. 

This sense of being controlled without 
being consulted, of being given a key with- 
out being told what door it opens, is common 
to all people who plan and are not sufficiently 
disengaged to observe that they are being 
overridden by their own contrivance; for 


86 











ane 


ee ee 


OT ee co eee eee 


pRB et ater Ss: 


CH. XIIt DEIRDRE 


there is a point up to which we control 
desire, but at the stage where other peoples’ 
interests intersect ours those alien desires 
and our own meet: they cease to be many 
and become one thing, and we are ridden 
in community by the jinn we liberated. But 
we know with a profound, unconscious 
certitude all that is happening, and are 
enlisted for those intuitive purposes beyond 
the control of interest or prudence or reason. 
Habit alone remains to guide us in these 
trackless ways, and it was her habit of 
verbal reticence which calmed Lavarcham. 

Her first impulse had been to tell Deirdre 
with a rush that the king was coming to 
see her on the next day. Her second im- 
pulse was cautious. If I tell this, she 
thought, the child will not sleep all night, 
and she will be heavy-eyed and dull before 
the king. 

Therefore she did not mention the matter 
to Deirdre. 

But she was no longer the calm lady 
whom the world. knew. She would sit 
down and stand up, and go wandering from 
room to room, and return from these ram- 
blings, to begin them all over again. She 


87, 


DEIRDRE BK. 1! 


sat by Deirdre’s side and took her hand, 
peering long and earnestly into the face she 
loved: dwelling on the set of her eyes, the 
line of her cheek, the poise of her lips and 
her chin: watching how her teeth shone 
and disappeared as she spoke, what her 
tongue looked like as it became visible for 
a short red flash: looking now at her ears 
and now at her hair; or standing well away 
to take her in as a girl, as a completion, 
with all details merged and the human unit 
standing full formed at the eye. 

She cogitated what dress Deirdre should 
wear on the morrow: what ornaments for 
her neck and hair; and then she thought, 
in a fever of inspiration, that she would take 
no thought of these: that the girl should 
be dressed even more plainly than usual: 
that there should be no ornaments upon her 
of any kind: that there should be nothing 
to look at but the girl herself with her hair 
for a crown, and her eyes for all other attrac- 
tion: the light eagerness of her limbs should 
be their own witness: the colour of her 
cheeks should be sufficient wonder for any 
eye. 

And again she thought that men do not 

88 : 











CH. XIII DEIRDRE 


understand these things at a glance; that 
they are used to looking for that which they 
have already seen; and that they spend time, 
not so much in appreciating that which is 
present, as in trying to account for the 
absence of that which they had expected to 
see. And she remembered again that it 
was Conachir himself who was coming, with 
a mind which would ponder exactly what 
was presented to it, and an eye that would 
regard no more than could be seen. 

She determined, in terror, that she would 
not prepare Deirdre in any way for the Visit, 
and that until she was called into the presence 
the child should know nothing even of an 
impending visitor. 

She arranged that this should happen, 
and at the accustomed hour the torches 
were quenched and the folk of the house 
hold betook themselves to their beds. 


CHAPTER XIV 


Bur at the hour she considered suitable 
Deirdre rose again from her bed. 

She could not rest there, although she ~ 
lay with the endless patience of a cat, staring 
hour after hour into the gloom and seeing 
in it more of radiance than the sun could 
show. 

She was living at last. 

The sense that all the morrows were 
provided for, and that all the minutes of all 
the morrows were calculated and ordained, 
dropped from her for ever, for she had 
become at last an identity instead of a puppet 
to be pulled here and ordered there, and to 
do only what was willed by other people; 
for first the imagination awakes and then 
the senses and lastly the will, when the urge 
of life is focussed. 


go 

















CH. XIV DEIRDRE 


Thinking of these other people, of 
Lavarcham and the grisly servants, of the 
ramshackle, sneezing guards, all ringing 
her about from freedom, a sense of rage 
came into her soul, so that at moments she 
was no longer a girl but a wild cat, and she 
could have scratched and screeched and 
died in one senseless outrage. 

Her mind, too, was overflowing with that 
same sense of urgency, as though something 
clamoured to be done immediately and at a 
pace faster than limbs could manage. What 
Was it she wanted? She did not know, but 
she knew definitely that she wanted it with 
a whole uncontrollable mental greed that 
made of her a person she did not recog- 
nize and could not battle with. 

But with all that tumult of mind she was 
patient with the marvellous patience of 
youth, for no grown person has one tithe 
of the patience of a child, who, from the 
hour he is born until the day when he 
snatches liberty from reluctant elders, leads 
a life that is one unending lesson in attend- 
ing. They can wait, for they know that the 
future is theirs and will come to them over 
whatever obstruction. And she could wait. 


QI 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


When Lavarcham trod softly in her 
chamber she pretended to be asleep, and 
amused herself staring behind closed lids 
at the red light which the torch carried even 
through that darkness. She thought her 
guardian would never go away, and lifting 
one scrap of an eyelash she saw Lavarcham 
brooding upon her with such a fixity of 
attention, with so profound a scrutiny, as 
surprised her. So curious and prolonged 
was this examination that she almost opened 
her eyes to demand a reason for this scrutiny 
from the face of ivory and jet that was bend- 
ing over hers. But she did not do so, for 
young people can bear starings and examina- 
tions which would madden them later in 
life, and are able to consider that affairs 
which actually circle upon them are yet 
not their business. 

Lavarcham sighed deeply, and as in a 
passion of what?—fear, hope, doubt—and 
then the light began to recede, and went 
farther away, and disappeared. 

Deirdre knew every motion that Lavarcham 
made at night. Now she did this, next she 
would do that, afterwards she would do such 
another thing: an unvarying sequence of 

Q2 


) 
¢ 





CH. XIV DEIRDRE 


small details which she had watched or 
listened to since the first hour that she was 
able to watch or listen. So that when she 
came from her bed she left it with the 
certainty that she might do so, and that all 
the habitual details had culminated in the 
habitual sleep into which Lavarcham placed 
herself even when it did not overcome her. 











93 


CHAPTER XV 


THE moon was at her last quarter, a pale 
thin sickle that shone and disappeared and 
reappeared in a mass of hastily scudding 
cloud. During that eclipse obscurity fell 
on the air, and a yet vaster quietude enveloped 
the earth. Then the sickle reappeared, and 
with it more than the darkness lifted. Some- 
thing even more mysterious than darkness 
vanished intermittently; that brooding as 
of an infinite presence seemed to recede, 
and the normal world, beautiful and com- 
prehended, came silverly to the view. 

Through these glooms and visions Deirdre 
fled, observing every shadow as a hare does, — 
who, knowing that this shade is a danger 
and that one a protection, ventures a pace 
or stays as his hard-won knowledge bids 
him. 


94 








CH. xv DEIRDRE 


A cloud of such a size meant a shadow 
of such a duration. This cloud will carry 
one across the lawn, and when it has passed, 
the trees yonder will be won and their desired 
shade. From the south another cloud was 
coming, bulky as a two-acre field and 
buoyant as a gossamer. Folded in_ its 
gloom the wall could be crossed and the 
shelter of trees or of long grass reached 
before the moon came riding, delicately, in 
a radiance that was one half silver and one 
half blue. | 

So she fled. The lark watching from a 
dew-drenched covert was not more discreet 
as it turned again to the slumber that she had 
broken; and when she took the wall the bat 
that whirled from it made more noise than 
she did. 

At times, when there was neither light nor 
dark, a world of grey and purple that was 
thirty feet high and fifteen feet around en- 
closed her in. And she stretched her ears 
towards the bounds of that small universe 
before she ventured another step. 

Wonderful and terrifying were these dim 
oases of vision; and across them, coming 
from no place and dallying a moment ere 


95 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


they went on to nowhere, more silent than 
the night itself and as incomprehensible, 
grey moths were flitting; dim as ghosts 
they were, and as aloof; beating a tireless 
gauze on no errand, tacking back and forth, 
and disappearing in one flirt of a noiseless 
wing. Small creatures seemed to wait until 
her foot must fall on them, and then, with a 
sound that lasted for two long seconds of 
panic, they were gone; they disappeared, 
and the world was utterly empty of them. 
At these sounds she stood, her heart beating 
up at her thoat and a sense of angry despair 
flooding over and about her. Then she 
moved again; slipping into and out of 
shadows as featly as the moonbeam slipped 
into and out of a cloud. 

She knew where she was going, but not 
what she was going to do. She would see 
him again because she must, and after that, 
if there was more to be done the time to do it 
would bring the doing. But the one large 
apprehension was as yet sufficient for her 
mind—that she would see him again, and 
that they would talk together. She was 
sure that this time he would speak to her, 
and that whatever he said would be wiser 


96 








CH. XV DEIRDRE 


and sweeter and stranger than any words she 
had yet listened to; and she wondered, 
without thought, what his magical utterance 
would mean and how it could possibly be 
replied to; knowing yet that her replies 
were already formed and that the only word 
she need utter until she died was the word 


66 9’) 
. 


yes 








| 97 H 








CHAPTER XVI 


SHE stood again behind a tree, looking on 
the camp-fire and the three figures that 
stretched or moved about it. She listened, 
but now without joy, to the babel of laughter 
which sped between them. Back and forth 
it went, endless, tireless. Youth calling and 
answering to youth; catching a facile fire 
from each other, and tossing it back as 
carelessly. Spendthrift they were as young 
gods; care-free as young animals; with 
minds untroubled because they need not 
work, and bodies that were at ease because 
they were active; scorning the darkness in 
a gaiety that was delicious because it was 
thoughtless; and with a _ thoughtlessness 
that was lovely because it was young. But, 
to her, watching, listening, waiting, all that 


98 








CH. XVI DEIRDRE 


merriment was a torment. She was their 
peer in youth and activity, but she was their 
superior in that she was thoughtful, for 
desire is thought not yet translated, and her 
desire would swell about the world and 
banish all else from existence so that she 
could fashion the regal solitude in which 
so gigantic a mystery might be contem- 
plated. 

Why, she thought frowningly, did these 
children not go to sleep. And why, she 
wondered, should older people submit to 
annoyance or be forced to await any young 
person’s convenience? 

But the night was advanced, and young 
people will sleep. Soon they stretched about 
the fire, and each composed himself to the 
slumber which comes as deliciously in its 
season as waking does; and, for their life 
favoured it, they fell into sleep as precipi- 
tately as though they were falling down a 
cliff. 

She could scarcely wait for the five 
minutes that was required. Then she 
plucked a scrap of moss and tossed it on 
Naoise’s breast. 

As he fell asleep so he sprang awake: 


oo 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


he went dead asleep: he came wide awake, 
with every faculty alert, and his limbs as 
composed for movement as for rest. He 
saw the scrap of moss lying on his bosom, 
and, knowing that such things do not travel 
of their own accord, he looked for the cause, 
searching keenly among the boles_ that 
stretched in endless gleam and gloom about 
them. 

She stood forward a pace. 

Had she really moved, or was she impelled! 
Surely a hand had taken her by the shoulder 
and pushed her forward! But in the 
moment that she moved panic seized her as 
suddenly and overwhelmingly as a hawk 
swoops upon a mouse. She lifted a hand 
to her breast so that her heart might not be 
snatched away, but the hand went on to her 
lips and covered them in terror lest they 
should call. She turned with one swift and 
flying gesture, but the foot that aimed for 
flight continued its motion, and the full 
circle held her again facing the terror. For 
he had already risen, lithe as a cat and as 
noiseless, and in three great strides he was 
standing beside her, standing over her, 
encompassing her about; not now to be 


100 











CH. XVI DEIRDRE 


retreated from or escaped from or eluded 
in any way. 

And as her heart had leaped so his leaped 
also, and they stood in an internal tumult, 
so loud, so intimate and violent that the 
uproar and rush of a storm was quietude in 
the comparison. 

They could not speak. There were no 
words left in the world. There were only 
eyes that plunged into and fled from each 
other, and a mighty hand that had gripped 
her arm and would never release it again. 
A hand that pushed her backwards and 
backwards, away from the friendly logs that 
crackled and flamed; away from the quiet 
forms that might have rescued her but that lay 
as though slumbering in stone. She might 
have escaped with one sound, but the law of 
her being was that she must not make a 
sound. She might have escaped by just a 
show of reluctance; one small opposition, 
nay, hesitation, to the pressure of that hand. 
But she would not make that infinitesimal 
wraith of motion. A weariness as of piled 
worlds went from his finger to her mind, and 
it was forbidden her to have any longer an 
initiative. A lethargy that was utter sur- 


IOI 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


render stole into her limbs. She did not 
think, she did not desire: she was as void of 
speculation as though she were dead; and 
while his hand continued to guide she would 
go, and when it ceased she would no longer 
be capable of either movement or repose. 

All fear of interruption had passed, and 
yet they went on cautiously, noiselessly, as 
though interruption was imminent or un- 
escapable; putting trees and yet more trees 
between them and the leaping fire; striving 
to forget the fire; seeking a more involved 
darkness, and finding everywhere a gloom 
that yet revealed them. They could not 
discover darkness. They could not get to 
a place where they could cease to see each 
other. Always it looked black farther on, 
and always when they got there they could 
each see the pale confronting face of the 
other, with the darkness everywhere but in 
those faces. 

They stopped perforce, with that feel- 
ing of tremendous discouragement wherein 
passion sinks back upon itself, where desire 
ceases and nothing is instant but weariness. 
His hand yet held her, but it gripped no 
longer: it lay on her arm as a dead weight: 

102 





CH. XVI DEIRDRE 


she had only to move an inch and it would 
fall away: she had but to turn and he would 
not follow her even with his eyes; but the 
energy which had drained from him flooded 
into her in one whirling stream, and when 
his hand fell away hers took up the duty it 
relinquished. 


103 


CHAPTER XVII 


Ir Lavarcham had ever permitted herself 
excitement she would have been excited the 
next day. But there is a curious means by 
which we may postpone the spending of 
our emotions. There are many people 
who can only do a particular thing on con- 
dition that they do it in two directions. 
They can repress themselves only when they 
are engaged in repressing some one else; 
for the thing we are doing outwardly and 
to others is always the thing that we are 
doing inwardly and to ourselves. If we treat 
others benevolently we are assuredly being 
kind to ourselves: if we mete out torment we 
will receive that measure and will writhe in 
it. A tyrant is ultimately one who is striv- 
ing for self-mastery by the wrong method. 
But in order to be good you must do good, 


104 














pally XVII DEIRDRE 


or to be anything you must do that thing 
concretely, for life is movement and all else 
is movement too. Lavarcham by uncon- 
scious processes discovered that Deirdre 
needed the utmost disciplinary and repress- 
ive measures that could be applied to a 
human being. 

“The child is running wild,” she com- 
plained to the air that circulated about 
Deirdre’s head. 

“But I have not done a thing,” cried 
Deirdre. 

“There are a thousand things you should 
have done,” Lavarcham replied. 

‘What are they?” Deirdre demanded. 

But Lavarcham did not know. 

She certainly felt within herself the neces- 
sity for doing a thousand things. She felt 
so busy that there must really be a thousand 
things to be done. But she knew also 
that nothing remained for her to do, and, 
consequently, that Deirdre was to blame. 

The real thing she had to do was to master 
her own excitement, and she perceived at a 
glance that Deirdre was in a very excited 
condition indeed. 

‘You must sit quietly, my treasure,” she 


105 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


counselled. ‘You must not move from 
one place to another, taking things up and 
putting them down. You will become 
fidgetty yourself and will give every one 
about you the fidgets also.” 

‘But ” Deirdre expostulated. 

‘And you must not give back-answers. 
When you are told to do a thing you must 
do it cheerfully and patiently iv 

‘“But——”’ cried Deirdre. 

‘For,’ Lavarcham continued, “lacking 
this self-control and gentleness of movement 
no girl can become a lady.” 

“But,” Deirdre exploded, “I have not 
done a thing.”’ 

‘You know, my one treasure, that every- 
thing I say is for your good, and when I 
counsel you it is because I consider you 
need just that counsel. You are distraught 
to-day, my bud of the branch, and there is 
no reason why you should not be as calm 
to-day as you were yesterday or any day. 
This is only to-day, but to-morrow will 
come and to-day will be forgotten.” 

‘IT do not understand in the least 
Deirdre began. 

“There is nothing to’ understand, my 


106 








9 








Las . 
Pe a 








CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


beloved. There is not a reason in the world 
that you should be troubled. Sit now at 
your embroidery, and do not leave it until 
I give permission.” 

Deirdre was indeed excited, but Lavar- 
cham had not the smallest perception of 
this: nor was it visible. It was a very 
intimate excitement, which could be brooded 
and enjoyed as well over a piece of em- 
broidery as in any other way. And Lavar- 
cham watched her, sensing nothing of that 
deep agitation and memory and dream. 

I was wise, she thought, not to tell the 
news, for the child seems even more beauti- 
ful to-day than she has ever seemed before. 
She has slept well. | 

While they were thus sitting a servant 
hurried into the room, with her eyes bolting 
from her head, and a gabble on her lips 
which Lavarcham only repressed by ferocity, 
for she surmised at once that the king had 
arrived, and she did not even yet wish 
Deirdre to know of the visit. 

She rose and precipitated herself against 
the servant. 

“Is that how you enter a room, ill-bred 
slave? Was it among the cattle that you 


107 


4 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


learned manners? Begone at once,” she 
cried, ‘‘and do not come into a room again 
until you have asked and received permission 
to enter. What is the world coming to?” she 
continued angrily as she hustled the servant 
through the door and down the corridor. 

“Tt’s the son of Ness ” the servant 
babbled. 

“And if it is,’ said Lavarcham, “there 
is the more reason for you to be attentive 
and respectful and unseen. Go to your 
place and stay there until I send for you.” 

She returned then, and, still simulating 
ill-temper, she dismissed Deirdre to her 
own room. 

“You have not properly trimmed your 
finger-nails,” she scolded; “there is a 
black spot under one of them. You are 
not seemly. Go to your room at once, little 
blossom, and when you come back come so 
that your fosterer need not be ashamed of 
her charge.” 

Saying so she marched Deirdre to her 
room and thrust her in. Then she returned, 
and, seating herself at the embroidery from 
which she had driven her ward, she pre- 
pared to receive the king. 


108 














CHAPTER XVIII 


“WELL, my heart,” said the king, as he 
strode through the door of the Sunny 
Chamber. 

With a keen glance he took in all that 
was to be seen. The woodwork of the walls 
and floors that were polished and polished 
again until they shone like crystal. The 
great carved chairs, each placed at the same 
prim distance from the other and from the 
wall; and the skins and furs that formed 
geometrical patterns and gradations of colour 
on the floor. 

Conachur shook his head as he regarded. 

‘ Methodical,” he said, as he sat down. 

“Orderly, master,” she corrected gently. 

“Tt is a woman’s room,” he _ insisted. 
““No man could live in it.” 

‘No man does,” said the humble dame. 


109 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


“ And by merely entering I have ruined it 
already,” the king continued in a grievous 
tone; “I have kicked three rugs out of 
alignment,” he said ruefully. 

“Tt is a small matter,” said Lavarcham. 

“T am certain that your heart is ill at 
ease, and although your hands are folded 
they are twitching to restore these rugs; 
rearrange them if you must, my good 
friends. 

“Tf the king permits me,” she cried joy- 
fully, and with a few deft touches she re- 
placed the rugs. : 

“You may sit down,” said the king. 
“And now, where is this baby you deafen 
the world about?” 

Lavarcham clapped her hands, and, to 
the servant who appeared in the doorway— 

“Tell your mistress, Deirdre, that she is 
required immediately—and do not tell her 
that a visitor is with me or woe betide you.” 

The servant disappeared. 

Conachir looked at her quizzically. 

“The girl does not know that I was 
coming?” 

Lavarcham pursed her lips. 

‘“‘T have not mentioned it to her.” 


IIo 








CH. XVIII DEIRDRE 


The king, with his elbow on his knee, 
continued to regard her mockingly. 

“Is it that you are careful or careless, my 
friend?” 

“Tam careful, master. I am always care- 
ful,” she replied. 

But,” he continued gently, ‘‘she will 
not be apparelled so as to be looked on by a 
visitor.” 

“She will be seen as she would be seen 
any hour of any day, and thus it will be 
known, master, that Lavarcham does her 
duty.” 

“You are the wonder of Emania,” said 
Conachir. “I hear a step,” he continued, 
and, removing his elbow from his knee, he 
stretched out a great leg and turned towards 
the door. 

Deirdre entered like a whirlwind of legs 
and laughter, and, seeing a huge man staring 
at her, she halted as if she had been stopped 
by a wall, whirled about and would have 
vanished again but that Lavarcham’s voice 
restrained her. 

“The king has come to visit us, my 
pulse,” said the suave Lavarcham. 


The blood pounded into Deirdre’s heart 
III 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


and into her temples; for an instant her 
body seemed to be filled with noise and 
blindness, and in the next instant the lady, 
trained for every emergency and in every 
etiquette, was mistress again. Deirdre ad- 
vanced, made a great reverence, and knelt at 
the king’s knee. 

He gave her his hand to kiss. 

“You may rise, my fawn,” said the 
monarch. 

She arose and stood with downcast eyes. 
She did not dare to look at him. Ail that 
came within her vision was a mighty leg 
draped in green silk, from which long 
tassels of gold swung gently. The king 
stared narrowly at her, and Lavarcham 
stared narrowly at the king. 

“Go now, my dear,” said Lavarcham, 
“and see that refreshments are brought for 
the king.” 

Deirdre again made her deep reverence, 
and, on rising, her hasty upward glance 
was caught by Conachur’s eye. She trod 
swiftly backwards, staring, and it was with 
parted lips and wide eyes that she disap- 
peared from the room. 

But the king continued staring at the 


Ii2 











CH. XVIII DEIRDRE 


doorway like one who has seen a vision and 
is striving with every fibre to recreate that 
which has vanished. 

‘Was I not right, master?” said Lavar- 
cham gently. | 

“She is the Bud of the Branch,” said 
Conachur. “She is the Fragrant Apple of 
the Bough.” 

‘Did I not say that she was beautiful?” 
cried the gleeful and vehement lady. 

“You did not say so,” he replied sternly. 
‘You never told me of this.” 

‘Nay, master, you would not believe me.” 

“Tt could not be told,’ the thoughtful 
monarch admitted. “If the flight of the 
swallow could be imparted by words, or the 
crisping of foam: if the breath of the lily 
could be uttered, or the beauty of a young 
tree on a sunny hill: then this Troubler 
might be spoken of. Have you _ noticed, 
my friend, how the sun paints glories and 
wonders on the sky as he goes west in the 
evening, or at early morn with what noble 
tenderness he comes again: she is radiant 
and tender as the sun, Lavarcham.”’ 

‘Thus it is,” said Lavarcham. 

“She is nine times sweeter than the 


113 I 


DEIRDRE BK.I 


cuckoo on the branch,” he cried. “I give 
her the Pass before all the women of the 
world, for she is notable and delicate and 
dear.”’ 

“Then you will marry her as is fitting,” 
Lavarcham pleaded. ‘‘You will not give 
my baby to a rough gentleman.” 

The king stood furiously from his chair. 

“She is for no man but the king,” he 
stormed. ‘She shall be my one wife until 
Doom.” 


114 





CHAPTER XIX 


In ten seconds the floor rugs had sailed from 
their anchorages and were lying some neatly 
inside out and all in woeful askewness. The 
chairs left their military formation; some 
stood seat to seat like couples preparing for 
a dance, others in the woeful, slack isolation 
of those who stare after uncivil partners that 
have fled. And in this wreckage of a woman’s 
room Conachur strode. 

‘““Lavarcham,” he cried, ‘there shall 
be great deeds done in Ireland from this 
day.” 

“Yes, my dear lord.” 

“I am twenty years younger than I was 
an hour ago. I could leap like a young 
buck, Lavarcham.”’ 

“Yes, my dear lord,” she stammered. 

“Poets shall sing more wisely in Eiré 


IIS 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


because of this day; harpers shall play more 
sweetly; the magicians shall win increase of 
power, for through me this land shall be 
possessed by power and beauty.” 

“Yes, my sweet lord,” cried the trans- 
formed woman. 

“You shall be with me always, Lavar- 
cham.”’ 

‘‘Oh, my master!”’ 

ak shall marry thee to an hero, and thy 
descendants for ever shall sit, even in the 
presence of a king.”’ 

“Nay, I shall kneel, and all my seed shall 
kneel in the house of my dear lord.” 

“Sit down, my soul, and let us talk. 
Lavarcham,” he said, “that girl shall be 
my wife.’ 

“T have dreamed of this day,” she mur- 
mured. 

“You knew I would marry her?”’ 

‘“‘T knew that my lord loves the best, and 
that she is the best. I trained her for my 
lord.” 

‘““She is the best,’ he conceded. “She 
is better than the best.” 

“The king will never blush for his bride, 


nor I for my training,” she continued, “for 


116 








CH. XIX DEIRDRE 


in everything that becomes a lady she is well 
taught.”’ 

“Sol” said Conachur. 

‘There is no ceremony of court or camp 
that she does not understand. There is no 
domestic care that she is not mistress of. 
She can touch the harp like a master, she 
can make a poem like a bard.” 

“You give me pleasure, Lavarcham, but 
all these she need do or not do as she pleases. 
Tell me rather of herself, what is her mode? 
What is her way of thinking?” 

“She is loving and obedient as a pet 
fawn, and she is wild-spirited as a wild 
fawn. She is thoughtful for others; she 
loves knowledge, and she fears nothing.’ 

“Even lacking all this, there is yet the 
makings of a queen in her.” 

Lavarcham nodded a satisfied head. 

“But she does not lack, and she is a 
queen. In a week, when she has become 
used to the crowd and the court, all the others 
will fall back to their own places and she 
will remain in her place.” 

“T think it will be so. But,’ and he 
aroused again, ‘“‘you have said nothing about 
the curve of her cheek, Lavarcham.”’ 


1t7, 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


‘“What would a poor woman say of that!” 
she cried gleefully. 

‘‘T saw her neck when she bent over my 
hand, and I saw the two great tresses falling 
away on either side. Lavarcham, that was 
a wonder to see!”’ 

“We see with our own sight, master.” 

‘“When she stood up I saw the lips that 
had touched my hand: and I looked in her 
eyes as she went away. ‘There is no end to 
those depths of light, and I can imagine that 
they would change as the deep sea changes. 
If she were angry they would be—thus; and 
if she smiled they would be thus again; the 
same and different. If she smiled her lips 
would move in the smile. How do her lips 
go when they smile, Lavarcham?”’ 

‘These are things which women are 
blind to, master; they are seen only by 
men. You must ask your poets to tell of 
them for this is man’s talk, and no woman is 
versed uinvits: 

‘ Lavarcham!” 

** Yes, master!” 

‘T shall take her away with me this day.” 

“Master!” 

‘‘ Bring her to the Red Branch at nightfall.” 


118 











| 
‘ 
' 
1 





CH. xIx DEIRDRE 


“Master!” 

“At nightfall, you hear me.” 

“T will not do it.” 

“What will you not do, slave, that I 
order?” 

“T will not debauch your queen.” 

‘* Lavercham 1a 

“No one shall make a leman of my 
babe.” 

‘She shall return in a few hours. Be 
with her at the Red Branch to-night. Do 
not fail on your life.” 

“If I bring her my knife will be in her 
bosom.” 

Conachur leaned back in his chair and the 
terrible staring frown went from his face. 

“We shall certainly marry Lavarcham to 
an hero. I am impatient, my heart, but 
strength and victory lies always with the 
one who can abide, and I can, even in tor- 
ment. Have your way, woman.” 

“It is the best way, master. You shall 
thank me yet for this way.” 

He smiled wryly. 

“ Dear, my lord,” she continued earnestly, 
“there must be the ceremonies that befit 
a king’s wedding, and guests must be 


119 





DEIRDRE BK. I 


‘nvited from the four great Provinces of 
Ireland. It cannot all be done before two 
little months.” 

“You shall have one week, my friend.” 

“A week! O my master!”’ 

“A ywoman’s mind runs to gauds and 
tricks and rites, but in a week we two shall 
be married, and you may have ceremonies 
for a year afterwards if you wish for them.” 

Lavarcham wrung her hands. 

“O my sweet lord v 

“Tt shall be so,” said the king. 

Lavarcham sat dumb. 





“In this house,” he continued impatiently, 
“refreshments are long in appearing, and 
after those excitements and battlings we 
need them.” 

“They only wait permission to enter,” 
she stammered, and clapped her hands. 

Deirdre appeared with .three servants 
carrying silver trays. She took one and 
knelt to present it to the king. 

“Nay, you shall partake with me, and 
Lavarcham shall serve us. Let those others 
go.” 

At a sign from Lavarcham the servants 


120 





CH. xIx DEIRDRE 


placed their trays on tables and retired with 
terrified courtesies. 

“Taste from the cup, my _ brightness,” 
said Conachur, ‘‘and afterwards I shall 
taste.) 

‘“A Ri Uasal!” Deirdre stammered. 

‘All precedence is yours from this hour. 
Are you not called the Troubler?” 

aramlord:’: 

“You have troubled the king, O sky- 
woman. Do not be shy with me or fright- 
ened, for although a king is terrible to all 
he is not fearful to a queen. Drink from 
my cup, O queen.” 

Deirdre glanced hastily towards Lavar- 
cham, for this conversation had taken a turn 
which her training had not provided for, 
but her guardian was sitting bemused, in a 
trance of benevolence and admiration. 

She sipped from the cup, and, with a tiny 
smile of apology and fear, tendered it again 
to the staring king. He took the vessel, and 
her hand with it. 

‘‘T imagined it so,” he said, ‘‘I imagined 
how the thin red lip would arch and curve 
and cling to the cup; and I foresaw how it 
would cling and-uncurve and re-arch and 


I2I 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


withdraw. The poets tell of such wonders 


when they can, but I know these things by 


my own virtue better than they do. One 


day, O shy cluster of delight, you will sing 


to me: my harper shall listen to that when I 
can bear a companion, for I may grudge a 


sight or a sound of you even to the men of © 
art. I shall see your hair done otherwise, — 


and this way again. I shall see you stir 
about me, this side and that and backwards; 
a thousand harmonies of movement that I 
divine and a thousand that I know nothing 
of. Do not be fearful, O little twisted loop 
of the ringlets, for you are my beloved. You 


shall have no weariness or lack for ever, for — 


I shall fold you in my affection as a hawk 


folds air within her wings. You shall leave © 


these bleak halls and yon mangy field to sit 


at the banquets in the Red Branch: to be the © 


Queen of Ulster, the pearl of the world, and 
my own heart’s comrade.” 

Deirdre was the more alarmed, not only 
because a strange and mighty gentleman 
was holding a strange and monstrous dis- 
course to her, but he was holding her hand, 


and she did not know how tto retrieve it. — 


She thought it would not be polite to laugh, 
122 

















CH. XIX DEIRDRE 


although she vastly wanted to, and she knew 
it would be foolish to cry, although she was 
so bewildered and terrified that an ocean of 
frightened tears was surging behind her eyes. 

‘““Lavarcham, my sweet mother,’ she 
murmured in distress. 

And that low plaint went to Conachir’s 
heart like a sword of delight, so that his soul 
was shaken and he could have wept for pity 
and love. 

‘Return to your embroidery, my child,” 
said Lavarcham. ‘I shall come to you later 
and prepare your mind for all that is in store 
for you.” 

Deirdre stood up then and fled, only 
remembering her courtesy at the doorway. 


E20 


CHAPTER XX 


LAVERCHAM came to her as promised, and 
she told Deirdre for hours of the delights to . 
come. 

‘“In a week,” she said, “you will be gone 
from here, and our home will be desolate 
indeed. But although the king called this 
a bleak den, and spoke of our demesne as a 
mangy field, he was not right in doing so. 
A house is bleak that has no children running 
and shouting in it, and this house will be 
bleak when you are gone; but in all other 
respects a cleaner or better appointed dwell- 
ing will not be found in the Five Great 
Fifths of Ireland; mark me well, child, the 
king was excited and unjust, and I shall tell 
him so. When you rule in Emania you 
will find how difficult it is to keep all things 
in order, and how hard it is to have even one 


124 








CH. xx DEIRDRE 


room clean; for men will be stirring at all 
hours of the day and night in your palace, and 
although they can make a home in a field men 
make nothing but dirt in a house. 

‘You will have much to do and to remem- 
ber, my secret bud, but, above all, you must 
remember the genealogies of Ireland and the 
precedences of the court as I have taught 
them to you, and in any doubt or dispute 
ask me rather than the herald. ‘The chief 
cause of trouble in a country is the herald, 
for he is always wrong, and even when he is 
right in fact he is wrong in tact. Do not 
take any other woman’s counsel in those 
matters; do not even seek it—the one wish 
of all women is to advance their husbands, 
and themselves by consequence, and they 
will ruin the world if they are let. 

“Do not forget that, after the king, the 
first man in the land is Fergus the son of 
Roy. Be quick in respect to him, but be 
slow to sit by him or to talk with him, for 
Conachur loves him on the surface, but he 
hates him in the bone. The first woman in 
the land is the wife of Fergus, the king’s 
mother. Be obedient to Ness in every- 
thing. Be quick in your courtesies to her. 


125 


DEIRDRE BK. 1 


Give her many kisses. Be careful not to 
love her, for her love is uncertain as a cat’s 
paw, and where she strikes she draws blood. 
But these two are not often at Emania. They 
live in their fortress, deep in love, or in 
thought, as Conachur fancies. 

“You will see Findcheam, the wife of 
Amargin the Wonderful, and Dervorgilla, 
wife of Lugad of the Red Stripes, Fedelm- 
of-the-Fresh-Heart, the wife of Laeri the 
Victorious, and Niab, the daughter of Celt- 
char mac Uthecar, and Brig Brethach, his 
wife. Hlussies all! spit-fires and scratch-cats ! 
There is Lendubair, Conall Cearnach’s wife, 
and Findige, wife of Eogan mac Durthacht, 
and Fedelm-of-the-Nine Shapes, the king’s 
daughter. They, and an hundred others. 
You will meet them all. 

“They have all been whispering of you 
this year back: and they have told more lies 
of you than will be told again until you die. 
You will like them at first, for many of them 
are nearly of your age, and they will fuss and 
gallop and chatter about you like daws. 
Give them all the listening you like, give 
them all the kisses they will take—Oh, you 
will be kissed from morning to night, my 


126 








$$ 





CH. XX DEIRDRE 


pet—but do not give one of them a moment’s 
confidence. 

“The king will talk to you urgently, whis- 
pering in your ear like a madman. There 
is nothing he will not tell you in the night, 
however deep it is, or hidden; for a man in 
love will give all that he has to the beloved: 
he would give his soul if he knew how to do 
it; and Conachur will think that by telling 
all his secrets to you he will somehow tell all 
your secrets to himself. Men are so. But 
that which he tells must be uttered to no 
other ear, for what is whispered in the 
palace will be shouted down the Boyne. 
You can tell me all, for I am different; I 
am your nurse, your mother, and your one 
friend, but to no other person must you shape 
even one syllable. 

“When the king has confided to you all 
that he can think of he will beg you to con- 
fide in him: he will pray you to tell him all 
that you have even done or thought—when 
he tells you of the wild glees and savageries 
of love tell him in return of how you feed 
your pet fawn; for a man, and the gods know 
why, delights to think that his beloved has a 
fawn in the valley, and he will listen for ever 


127 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


to the tale of how it is fed and of its grateful 
eyes. 

‘You will meet many men in the palace, 
and each gentleman that you speak to will 
be looked at closely by the king. Until this 
day he has been aware of women as one is 
aware of the sun, but now he will grow aware 
of men as one is aware of a wound. You 
will not see him look, but look he will; and 
when you seem most free from observation 
he will be studying you. Whether it be a 
captain or a butler that your eyes rest on, he 
will know, without looking, at whom you 
are looking, and thereafter he will examine 
that person for himself, and he will examine 
you in curious ways about that person. Any 
question he ever asks about a man will be a 
trap for you. Answer him carelessly about 
them all, and make the same answer about 
them all. 

‘It is safe to say of all men that they are 
nice, but do not say that one is nicer than 
another. ‘There is no end to the windings 
of his mind, and if you say that one man is 
ugly and another not he will dream about 
the distinction and will dream you terribly 
into his dream. A dreaming man is magical, 


128 


es ee a 














CH. xx DEIRDRE 


for he will make the dream come true against 
his own wish and interest, and Conachtr is 
at the age to have those dreams. 

“Be gentle and uncertain with him. Be 
wild and coy. Do not, although he prays 
you, be familiar with him. Tire quickly of 
dalliance, for in middle life a man likes not 
to think that he has wearied first. Dance 
often but do not gambol. Be girlish but not 
childish. Do not pluck his beard or tickle 
him. Sit sparingly on his knee. It is only 
old men who like baby tricks, and he is not, 
by fifteen years, old enough for that. 

‘Discuss your dresses and ornaments with 
him: ask his advice about your ribbons; 
he will laugh at you and chide you, but he 
will love that to be done, and he will love 
you for doing it. Should he be sportive 
among women, pout then a little, make a 
small lament, but take no heed of it. He has 
outlived all the chances of desire. 

“He will love you only, and each day he 
will love you more. What fear there is 
will be on his side; he will be afraid of men: 
and there your heed must be endless, for you 
must not hurt the king even by a second’s 
thoughtlessness. His equal is not in Eiré 


129 K 


DEIRDRE BK. 1 


for majesty and wisdom. He is a great king, 
a great man, a royal hero. O my lamb! all 
that is of good luck and of noble fate has 
come to you, and you should thank the king 
for ever on your knees, and thank your poor 
Lavarcham who planned this happiness.” 


130 














CHAPTER XXI 


AnpD Conachtr lived anew as he drove home- 
wards. 

He did not see the humble people who 
louted and stared as he dashed by, nor the 
others who stood at strict attention marvelling 
at a king who returned no salute. 

His feet were so light he could have 
bounded in the chariot, but his heart was 
lighter still. 

It flew into his brain and stayed there, 
buoyant as a bubble, creative as a moon; so 
charging his mind with its own essence that 
all which was material merged in a flash to 
the spirit. The earth was eased of grossness 
and became a shimmer of colours and trans- 
parencies; an aura of gold and green rose on 
the crests of the manifolding hills. The 
tender involutions of no bird’s song was 


131 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


heard, for all songs merged into that of the 
lyrical earth and the clouds and the shining 
spaces between them. ‘The world was sing- 
ing for Conachir, and he was song. For to 
the clairvoyance of love all that is unseen 
takes on sweet shape, and all that we see we 
are shapen to. A new world emerges softly 
from the old: not imperceptibly and un- 
reckoned, but by such divine gradations as 
we may note and rejoice in. Then the 
creator is manifest in his creation, and all in 
us. We are it and all: we are the soul of the 
world, and our own soul: we are the victors, 
for we are beyond fear: we are the masters, 
for we are beyond desire. 

How should fear or lust reach to the tops 
we spurn! ‘The sour-faced beggar shaking 
his oaken bowl may have our purse and a 
clasp of the hand to boot. Yon shaking 
anatomy that hovers and limps shall have 
our own health if none other is at hand, for 
all now is soft and easy, and at one bend of a 
brow the Land of Heart’s Desire may be in 
being. 

So Conachir went, dreaming; the shaper 
of a world that was malleable to his wish. 

To this hour he had triumphed in all that 


132 








CH. XXxI DEIRDRE 


he had undertaken, but he had been un- 
friended, forging alone as in granite all that 
he willed, and feeling at every instant the 
rigour of life and the intractability of events. 
He saw that nothing he had yet done was so 
completed that it might be forgotten. Here 
an event had left dissatisfaction in its wake: 
there it had left an enemy. But from hence- 
forth his work would have the clean finish of 
the spring, and all that he planted should 
grow from the root. 

He would have double strength; his 
titanic own, and hers, breathing in him like 
an elixir, exciting him, heartening him. She 
was—what was she not! She was his to- 
morrow. She was his all and his last chance. 
She was his future, vivifying all that had 
grown stale, and unfolding horizons where 
an uttermost end had seemed. For at 
times an ending comes on every man, and 
thereafter there is nothing to strive for, 
there being nothing left to hope for; energy 
winces from the thought of any task, and 
the future but prolongs a present that is 
insipid and wearisome. 

The departure of Maeve had been such an 
ending for Conachir. Life had halted there 


133 


DEIRDRE | BK.I 


for him, or had moved in a round of sameness 
which chafed and tormented his whirling 
mind. But he could forget her now and 
start afresh, for when he looked on Deirdre 
she went into his blood and into his bones, so 
that to be removed from her was as though 
he were distant from his own arms or his own 
head. 

He was impatient, and wished that all 
should know, as at one shout, his glorious 
news, but he yet would not speak of it to 
any one. He knew that he might safely 
leave the publishing of that event to Lavar- 
cham, and that ere nightfall every house in a 
radius of twenty miles would be talking of 
the king’s marriage. 

Down every road that ran from Emain 
Macha messengers would be going in swift 
chariots to tell the tale and to bid those who 
were worthy to the wedding feast. Not 
stopping for more than a few minutes at any 
place; changing horses at the guest-houses, | 
and dashing off again; some deep into 
Connacht in the west, others eastwards into 
Leinster, and more again speeding the long 
centre of Ireland to the two Munsters. 
These distant kings and princes would think 


134 








CH. XXI DEIRDRE 


they had been slighted by such short notice, 
or by a notice that could only reach them 
after the event. But his wedding feast 
should endure for three months, and there 
would be pleasure and leisure for all. At 
this moment, if Lavarcham was doing her 
duty (and she was never neglectful), the 
ostlers should be pulling the great chariots 
out and backing the snorting horses between 
the shafts. 

To-morrow would be a new day. 

Every person who observed the king 
would look on him with something else in 
the regard. Many reserves would be down, 
many barriers broken: for all people look 
differently on the king when he is in love, 
and they try to bathe in his fortunate regard. 

The men would glance at him shyly and 
subtly: each look a reminder and a well- 


wishing. While he stood among them he 


and they would laugh without any word 
being said, and they would be more familiar 
with him than they would otherwise dare. 
But if one dared to clap his shoulder, Cona- 
chir would clap that comrade’s shoulder 
again. 

The women would look at him more 


135 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


openly; more softly and broodingly; each 
mutely assuring him that all which was to 
come would be good; each telling him that 
woman guards for man all that which no 
man can give; each telling that because he 
loved one woman he must love all, and that 
women are truly lovable, and are precious 
beyond all precious things. He would see 
that they all wished to touch him, so that he 
might know they were truly woman and not 
different from her he delighted in; and he 
would see them turn from him, humbled and 
agerieved, seeking anxiously in other eyes 
for the confirmations which he must not 
give. 

For when the king is in love the world 
goes mad, and all who love him must cherish 
each other or sicken of their suppressed 
loyalty and adoration. 

For weeks to come Ulster would be an 
orgy. The man who had dodged marriage 
as a fox tricks the hen-wife would tumble 
into it with a thud: those who craved for and 
feared it would find that they were married 
in a morning: maids would become daring 
and men shy. From one, walking coyly in 


the moonlight, a shoulder-band might slip, — 


136 


BMRA EY eps 


hy 
a 
t 
i 
iy 
4 
R " 
4 
; 
4 














CH. XXI DEIRDRE 


and the moon and a man would be rewarded 
for being out at night. One who stood and 
spoke might suddenly shape her lips thus, 
and the man who looked would go blind in 
his brains and stay so to the last quarter of 
the moon. A wave of frolic and daring 
would go from the king, and thrill to the last 
hamlet in his kingdom; for although war is 
glorious, death is its ruler and companion; 
but from love life flows and everything that 
is lovely. 

And, as his heart rose thus, Conachuir 
knew that he was the life of his people, for 
he was king and lover, and that all swung 
about him as the world swings round 
the sun. 


137 


CHAPTER XXII 


But for Deirdre a night went by which to 
the end of her days she would not care to 
remember. 

She had seen the king at last: that being, 
all memory and dream, half monster and 
half baby, whom she remembered from 
Lavarcham’s endless tale. She had seen 
the grave brow, the graver eyes, the bushy, 
reddish-yellow hair looped back to the slope 
of his poll, and the yellow beard cleft at the 
centre and foaming in two points to the 
breast. She could not have thought that a 
man might be so huge, so steady, so master- 
ful. He was a being to whom one might — 
pray, or for whom one might die joyfully. 
If a lord came striding from the Shi surely ~ 
he would look as Conachtir did: massive 
and dazzling and wonderful; with an eye © 


138 








CH. XxII DEIRDRE 


from which one winced as from the sun, and 
with a voice that trolled and astonished like 
the note of a beaten drum. She remem- 
bered his hand that could hold both of her 
own with ease, and the great ridge of his 
shoulders, sloping away like the easy run 
and fall of a mountain. 

And this terrific being claimed her as his 
wife! 

Nothing but terror filled her heart at that 
prospect, for she could not see him in any 
terms of intimacy or affection. He was and 
would remain as remote as her childhood, 
and no mere nearness could make him 
present. And he would be as unaccount- 
able as are the elements that smile to-day 
and rage to-morrow in hurricane. What 
woman could reckon his parts or his total? 
He was like some god that had come out of 
the hills to astonish and terrify. 

And there was Naoise! 

As her memory retrieved the beloved 
name her heart went bustling to her throat, 
and she sat raging and terrified. 

It was not that he would be defrauded of 
her: it would be his own business to be 
woeful on that count; but she would be 


139 


DEIRDRE BK.1I 


defrauded of him, and her proper lack was 
as yet sufficient for her mood, for lacking him 
what could be returned to her? Her hands 
went cold and her mouth dry as she faced 
such a prospect. 

The youth who was hers! Who had no 
terrors for her! Who was her equal in 
years and frolic! She could laugh with 
him, and at him. She could chide him and 
love him. She could give to him and with- 
hold. She could be his mother as well as 
his wife. She could annoy him and forgive 
him. For between them there was such an 
equality of time and rights that neither could 
dream of mastery or feel a grief against the 
other. He was her beloved, her comrade, 
the very red of her heart, and her choice 
choice. 

Deirdre leaped from the bed, but she could 
not leap from her thoughts, and she could 
not attempt the crazy and mazy corridors of 
her home to fly to him; for the excited house- 
hold was clattering and chattering in the 
corridors, and she could no more escape by 
them than a bird can escape by its cage. 

It was not until two nights had passed 
that she could dare the wall; and in the 


140 


CH. XXII DEIRDRE 


intervening days she must listen to Lavar- 
cham, endless in caution and advice. 

Do this, but do not on your life do that. 
Remember this always, and this and this and 
this. There seemed as much to remember 
not to forget as there was to remember to 
remember. 

Deirdre would turn an eye on her guardian 
so lack-lustre at times, and again so woeful 
or wild, that the good lady marvelled. 

“Do not be frightened, my silk of the 
flock,” her guardian soothed, “there is 
every cause for joy and none for fear. In 
three days you will be the most envied lady 
in Ulster, and in four you will be the happi- 
est. Tell Layarcham what is in your mind 
and what you are afraid of?” 

“TI am in dread of the king,” said Deirdre. 

eeenete will pass,’ Vavarcham advised, 
“and in a few days you will wonder that 
you could have been frightened. But a 
maid is a maid: all that she thinks or dreams 
is founded on inexperience, and has nothing 
to do with reality: the world pours into a 
young girl’s lap heedless of what she wished 
_ or dreaded; for no Person can either hope 
or fear until they know actually that which 


I41 


a 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


is hopeful or frightful. All you need do is 
to accept what your heart approves of, and 
what your heart rejects you can throw away. 
There is everything to hope for and nothing 
to be afraid of.” 

But her chance did come at last. 

She found the sons of Uisneac still at their 
encampment, but they were a silent trio. 
They were more than silent: they were 
abashed and embarrassed. 

‘What is it?” Deirdre murmured, feel- 
ing the constraint. 

“We are bidden to your wedding,” said 
Naoise shyly. 

The mild candour of his voice went into 
her heart like a sword, so that she could not 
speak to him, and it was to his brother she 
turned. 

“What shall we do, dear Ainnle?” she 
asked. 

But he had no answer for her, and it was 
the youngest who replied. 

“Tet us all run away,” Ardan cried, and 
his face went suddenly red and his eager 
eyes shone like stars. 

Naoise glanced at Deirdre from under his 
brows. 


142 














CH. XXII DEIRDRE 


“Where could we run to from the king?” 
Ainnle grumbled impatiently. 

‘And we do not come of a race that run 
away, said Naoise. 

Silence fell. But the statement of his 
own quality had unlocked a door of bitter- 
ness in Naoise’s heart. 

‘Nor will you easily find the girl who will 
run away from a kingdom,” he continued as 
though addressing reasonable counsel to his 
juniors. 

Deirdre faced him gravely and lovingly. 

“I will run away with you,” she said. 

“ The king !”” Naoise gasped. 

I am afraid of that king,” she whispered 
urgently. 

But her lover was pale and terrified. 

It would be an affront that was never 
offered to a king in Eiré. It would bewa 
cruelty: it would be an awful deed. 

He turned to his brothers. “The king 
is our uncle, he loves us,” he said. 

“Yes,” Ainnle agreed, ‘She loves us 
better than his own sons.” 

“After Cuchulinn,” said Ardan, “he 
loves us best in the world.” 

‘And he loves me,” said Deirdre. 


143 





DEIRDRE BK. 1 


Naoise leaped to his feet. 

“O gods of day and night!”’ he cried. 

He seemed to plead to Deirdre for com- 
prehension and pity. | 

‘“Conachur reared me like his own son: 
I sat in his lap: he buckled this sword on 
me with his own hand, he put his two palms 
on my shoulders when I won my weapons, 
and he kissed me three times on each cheek. 
I love and venerate him.” 

Again silence throbbed among them. 

“T shall go home to Lavarcham,”’ said 
Deirdre. 

The boys looked at her and at each other 
and at the ground and did not know where 
to look any more. 

‘T also shall be reared by the son of Ness,” 
she said gently. ‘‘I too shall sit in his lap. 
He will not buckle a sword on me, but he 
will unbuckle my girdle with his own hands; 
he will put his two palms on my shoulders, 
and he will kiss me many times on each 
cheek.” f 

Naoise beat a fist against his brow. 

‘“‘T am the king’s man,” he stammered. 

But she turned her fleet smile and 
trembling lips on him. 


144 


CH. Xx1r DEIRDRE 


“Am I to tell the king how well we loved 
each other, night after night among the 
trees? or would it be better to keep that as 
a secret among us four: they say that men 
can keep secrets.”’ 

The two lads blushed painfully and 
turned away. 

Naoise was as one who has renounced life. 

“There is nothing to be done,” said his 
dry lips. And then, shaking his shoulders, 
he tossed care from them. 

“We shall be beyond the trees at this 
hour to-morrow night with the chariots,” 
he said. “If the hour passes and you do 
not come we shall attack the guards and 
take you out.” 

He turned to the others. 

“You must come with us, wherever we 
go, my brothers, for when the king finds 
that I am gone he will slay you two for 
Bricws 

“He wouldn’t kill me,” Ardan boasted, 
“for I wouldn’t let him.” 

“ Nobody but Ciuchulinn could kill you,” 
Ainnle scoffed. 

“You couldn't, anyway,” the youngest 
retorted. 


145 12 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


“Tittle boasting Pillar of Combat!” his 
brother gibed. ‘‘Pooh! Battle-Torch of 


the Gael!” 
And in terrified merriment they made the 


rest of their arrangements. 


146 








CHAPTER XXIII 


LAVARCHAM left the king’s presence. 

She came away bowed and blind and dizzy, 
shuffling in any direction and unaware of 
why she was walking or where she was 
going. An hundred thoughts, battling furi- 
ously for precedence, kept her thoughtless; 
an hundred pictures, each striving for place 
and examination, kept her blind. She was 
all a din and whirl and swirl, as though the 
winds that raged in gust and countercurrent 
through her brain were blowing her along. 
At times she would remember that she did 
not wish to go where she was going, and 
she would spin furiously aside and go as 
stupidly in another path; and at times she 
would discover that she was standing, still 
and collected as a stone, a nothing; staring 
on nothing. Great sighs broke from her 


147 


DEIRDRE BK.! 


miserable heart; or she was so shattered 
by dry sobbings that it seemed her bones 
must part company with her flesh and with 
each other: and again, with her two hands 
gripped on her mouth she squeezed back a 
medley of screams, and listened, as in amaze- 
ment, to the thin whinings that forced 
through the crooked spaces in her fingers. 
Again, the cautious woman would peep 
and peer to see if any person was nigh to 
observe her, and before that survey could 
make its round she would forget what she 
was looking for, and think that they could 
not be seen from this place, for they have 
hours’ start, and will be—where? by this 
time. 

With what unbelieving anguish that 
flight had forced itself upon her! She 
had gone trotting and ambling and panting 
about her rooms and fields, calling— 

“Deirdre, Deirdre, Deirdre?” 

Searching for her baby in a work-basket 
or on the flat of a ceiling, while the servants 
gibbered and squealed and bubbled and 
blared at her and at each other. 

With what an iron dismay the thought 
of Conachir came on her, desolating and 


148 


CH. XXIII DEIRDRE 


unreckoned as the thunderclap which howls 
on the heels of its howling brother. 

He must be told. 

And at that she poked up her nose like a 
moonstruck dog pealing scream on scream, 
until the attending hags fled into corners 
as the mice do when they are frightened, and 
screamed with her and at her and at the roof. 

She went to Conachir. 

She stood mumbling and staring outside the 
door and then trotted in, whispering at him: 

‘‘She’s gone.” 

And Conachur echoed, in uncomprehend- 
ing amazement: 

“She’s gone.” 

Lavarcham stared into the king’s face 
that was carved in the granite of suspense 
and astonishment. 

“She’s gone, little Deirdre’s gone,” she 
yelled, and emptied her thin fingers on the 
air as though she emptied them of Deirdre. 
She clapped her hands together with a 
dreadful giggle, and flapped her arms along 
her thighs like some ungainly crow that has 
been set dancing drunk on mead. 

“When a maid goes a man goes with 
her,” she croaked. 


149 


DEIRDRE BK. I 


She flopped to the door and hopped out 
of it and popped back. 

‘““She’s gone,’ she cried. ‘She’s gone; 
she ran away with a man”; and she wobbled 
to the doorway again, nodding and tittering 
at the king until she disappeared. 

The servants and guards were listening 
with their eyes staring, their mouths open, 
and their breathing forgotten. 

A whisper, a thrill, a terrible constriction 
of the heart fled through the vast palace, and 
went zig-zagging like wildfire about Ulster. 
And in the centre of that Conachiur stood, 
alone; with his fists closed and his eyes 
closed; listening to the whispers that were 
an inch away and an hundred miles away; 
that were over him and under him and in 
him: listening to the blanching of his face 
and to the liquifying of his bones: listening 
in a rage of curiosity and woe for the more 
that might be said and all the more that 
might be thought: trying, as with one grip- 
ping of the mind, to sense all the bitterness 
that might be; to exhaust it in one gulp, 
and re-awaken as at a million removes from 
all that had ever been or could be till Doom. 


150 


gexec 











CHAPTER I 


Time flies, scattering on all that had seemed 
important the ash of forgetfulness, and so 
crowding memory into memory that the 
thing we recollect has no longer the shape 
or colour that strode against us once upon 
a time. 

For all men but the dreamer time flies. 
But it may be stationary for him who can 
recreate in the night all that he forces to 
oblivion in the morning. His woeful yester- 
days can be timely at any time, for nothing 
that touches him will rust or fade, and he 
may be seen to wince at a word which his 
contemporaries have lost the significance of. 

The seven years that passed had not 
touched Conachir. He was still the master- 
ful king, the unremitting lawgiver. He was 
still the idol of his people. What would a 


153 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


banquet in the Red Branch be if the king 
were away? But he was never absent, and 
wherever there was music or frolic or 
laughter the Son of Ness was urging it on, 
and would be eager for more when the 
youngest companion was wearied to stupidity. 
Not time nor thought could blunt the edge 
of his bodily or mental energy so vast was 
it, and misfortune beat as unavailingly 
against him as the wind did against oaken 
Emania. 

To be energetic and self-sufficing is to be 
happy; but while one desire remains in 
the heart happiness may not come there. 
For to desire is to be incomplete: it is the 
badge of dependence, the signal of un- 
happiness, and to be freed from that is to 
be freed from every fetter that can possibly 
be forged. Man becomes god when he 
finds his satisfactions within himself, but 
his dreams then are other than those that 
harried Conachir as a pack of hounds harry 
atox, 

For Ulster might forget, and those who 
had not been outraged might forgive, but 
he would not forget or forgive until he was 
as dead as those should be against whom his 


eee 











CH. I DEIRDRE 


mind was directed like the point of a secret 
spear. 

Deirdre and the sons of Uisneac had fled 
to Scotland, where they had kinsmen and 
acquaintances who had grown up with them 
in Emain Macha as fosterages from the 
Scottish courts, or as lords and captains in 
Conachiir’s mercenary armies. They may 
have met Cichulinn there, for it would be 
about that time that he was under the tuition 
of the female warrior and witch, Scatach; 
and, if so, they should have met his comrade 
Ferdiad also, he who was to assail the ford 
afterwards with what a hand! and it may 
have been during their exile that Cuchulinn 
fell in love with Scatach’s daughter, and that 
the child was born who would receive such a 
woeful stroke on Baile’s Strand. 

It is one of the wise arrangements of pro- 
vidence that no person can either eat of the 
Same thing or talk of the same thing for 
more than a week: and so, when gossip’s 
time had passed, Ulster, unless it might be 
to some travelling historian, spoke no more 
of the king’s misfortune. Such an historian 
would have learned that Deirdre was tall 
and short, and that she was dark and fair and 


155 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


sallow: for every woman he interviewed 
would lend her own contours and com- 
plexion to such an heroine, and would, as 
they reprobated or forgave, endow her with 
the moral qualities which they best appre- 
ciated—their own. Lavarcham could tell 
the truth and so could Conachur, but they 


would not be questioned for some years to- 


come. 

The king had downfaced the whole 
matter from the start. He went to the chase 
that day. He sat at the banquet that night. 
He visited his foreign troops the next day, 
and the day after he inspected the fortifica- 
tions at the Pass of the Fews and a length of 
the Black Pig’s Dyke on either side. There 
was the Boy Troop to be reviewed and their 
competitions to be scrutinized. ‘There were 
the unending ceremonies of the court, the 
Judgement Seat, and of the embassies from 
all parts of his realm and from overseas: 
there were gifts to be received and returned: 
counsels to be given and listened to. There 
was an eternal variety of occupations for the 
king, who although he might employ a day 
of eighteen hours’ work, could have some- 
thing yet to think of ere he slept. 


156 


“we a 2 
es a 





CH. 1 DEIRDRE 


Cuchulinn and Conall Cearnach had been 
equal kings with him, but they had (Lavar- 
cham had assisted in that) surrendered their 
powers to Conachur, who was now known and 
described as Emperor of Ulster. 

What allegiance he gave to the High King 
of Ireland we do not know, and it may have 
been part of his plan to arrive at that dignity 
himself. A Connacht prince was then, and 
for a thousand years afterwards, High King 
of Ireland, and although the effort of Con- 
nacht and Ulster to achieve supreme rule 
may now be forgotten, the effects of those 
bitter wars lasted longer than an historian 
would dare to count. 

So far as Ulster was concerned the king 
might have been at ease. His honour was 
as safe as his kingdom, and as for the other 
actors in his drama their condition was so 
manifestly gentle and their youth so extreme 
that no taint of ugliness or treachery could 
remain in the tale, or in the mind of the 
person who heard it. It could, in a while, 
have been told of as a regrettable childish 

misadventure, and one which not even the 
king need further remember. 

But the king remembered. 


152 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


It was to escape such a memory that 
he plunged into affairs and banquets and 
a whole roystering self-expenditure which 
would have devitalized any other man. He 
prolonged his day until it could not for very 
weariness be further extended, and then he 
went to bed. 

No: he went to Deirdre’s bed where 
Naoise slept, and over which he hovered 
sleepless, though in sleep, and in a torment 
that poisoned the very sunlight when he 
awakened. 


158 











a ~- a 


— SS a OE ——OEE————E— 














CHAPTER II 


CONACHUR Mac Nessa was preparing a feast. 

Flousehold banquets were common matters 
at his court, but this was to be a State banquet, 
and every person who could be thought of as 
noble or notable was invited to the Red 
Branch. 

As well as an aristocracy of birth there was 
in every Irish court an élite of excellence. 

hose who were foremost in learning, the 
arts, or the crafts, had the privilege of visiting 
the king equally with those whose merit rose 
from their fathers’ graves or their skill at 
arms. A king was then close to his people, 
and he was by training and habit a connois- 
seur in many things which all could under- 
stand. A commonwealth of taste is the only 
one which can admit equality—it is demo- 
cracy. He could commend with knowledge 


159 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


the man who built a house or the man who 
did the carvings in it. He could speak to 
the maker of his chariots or the breaker of 
his horses in terms that apprehended to the 
last shading the matter that was being dis- 
cussed, and, so, to the expert who cured his 
bacon or the sturdy master who superin- 
tended the brewing of his beer. All arts 
were household arts; all crafts were arts; 
and the knowledge of these was culture. A 
gentleman would know of all the music that 
was worthy of being played, for a musical 
person formed part of every household. He 
would remember the songs that had out- 
lived time and could discuss their excel- 
lences; and the only art which he need 
regard as occult would be poetry itself; for, 
while all other arts come by memory and 
experiment, poetry, which is not an art, 
comes solely by grace. 

“Tavarcham,” said Conachtr, “have you 
heard any talk of the banquet?” 

“Indeed, master, I have heard. nothing 
else” 

‘Will there be any notable absentees ?” 

“None but those who are dying of 
wounds or sickness.”’ 


160 














— LE eeEEEEeaeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeOoe 


CH. Il DEIRDRE 


“Cuchulinn has stayed at home for some 
time now?” 

“ For a year after marriage one is still newly 
married,” the Conversation-woman submitted. 

“I fear that boy’s love for me has bounds,” 
Conachir pursued. 

“The king has been too kind to him,” 
cried Lavarcham harshly. 

“The king cannot help himself,” he 
corrected, “ for I love the lad, and I could no 
more do him an ill turn that I could do one 
to myself.” 

“I, too, love him,” said Lavarcham, “ but 
he is more forward than is proper, even in a 
prince.” | 

“Can you tell me, Lavarcham, why he ob- 
jected tomy sovereign privilege with his wife?” 

“Pride,” she replied briefly. ‘He is 
prouder than ten kings.”’ 

“It is so, and it is a gentleman’s pre- 
rogative to be proud,” he continued. “But 
if such objections were allowed government 
would become impossible. Do the people 
still talk of his refusal?” 

“ The people know that the king did sleep 
with Emer.”’? } 

*Emer=pronounced Ever. 
161 M 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


“Yes, they may know that, but do they 
know that Fergus slept on the other side of 
her as a guard?” 

“No,” she replied, “that is known to 
but five people, and they are all loyal to the 
kine 

‘Tell me,’ and Conachur scrutinized her 
gravely, ‘‘do you love Cuchulinn better than 
me?” 

“T love you best of all, master,” said 
Lavarcham. 

‘“‘T think you do, my friend, but they say 
that every woman loves the Cu.” 

“As to Fergus’—he muttered and went 
silent for a moment—“I do not yet know how 
much Fergus loves me. J am not sure that 
a loyal man would have undertaken a duty 
against his sovereign such as Fergus accepted 
for Cuchulinn.” 

‘“He did it because he loves both of you, 
master, and it is surely better that such an 
arrangement should be known only between 
friends.” 

“Possibly,” said Conachur. “And yet 
I had passed my word that if my right was 


conceded I would not touch the girl. Is a 


king’s word not accepted any longer by 
162 


a 








_ 
= a 





CH. Il DEIRDRE 


those Ferguses and Cichulinns?” he cried 
furiously. 

“It was Cuchulinn’s doing,” said she. 

“It may have been Fergus’s,” he retorted, 
and went moodily silent. ‘Who knows 
what that man thinks of.” 

“Feasts,” said Lavarcham. “He loves 
food.” 

“I was tempted,” the king gritted, “to 
try in the night whether he dared obstruct 
me, and to see if he dared thrust the sword 
he went to bed with into his king—but I had 
passed my word. If,” he continued irrit- 
ably, “‘the Cu had only asked Conall Cear- 
nach or Cruscid Menn or any gentleman 
of the household to be his surety instead 
of the man he did ask, I could have borne 
5 ae 

Lavarcham chuckled respectfully. 

“How did that night pass, master?” she 
inquired. , 

Conachur gave a great laugh. 

“Fergus and I went to bed, and the girl 
went to bed between us, and we all had our 
clothes on. My bed is small enough for 
me when I am alone, but to pack a large 
girl into it with all her clothes on, and then 


163 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


to pack an overgrown vast bullock of a man 
like Fergus into it also, cannot be done. | 
made but one resolve that night, that on no 
account would I be pushed out of my own 
bed, and I was not, but every time that 
Fergus closed an eye he fell on the floor and 
the girl woke up and screamed.” 

Lavarcham let out a shrill titter, and 
begged the king’s pardon. 

‘“How did Emer behave?” she asked. 

‘She went to sleep,” said Conachur 
sourly. ‘‘She slept hard and kicked hard 
for seven long hours; and this I know, that 
if she has the round knee of a woman, which 
she has, for it was thudded into my back a 
thousand times, she has also the sharp elbows 
of a girl, so that after a time it seemed to me 
that there was a bundle of live bodkins in the 
bed. J never knew how long a night could 
be until that night: and we had even to 
prolong it out of courtesy to the lady! I 
shall keep a painful memory of that sweet 
girl until I die, and the Cu is welcome to 
every royal remittance he can desire on her 
behalf. But now, about the banquet. Is 
everything in order?” 

‘Everything, master.” 


164 





CH. It DEIRDRE 


‘The brewers, the bakers, the cooks, they 
have their equipment and instructions?” 

“Your butlers must answer for that, 
master.” 

“True, but as you went among these 
people how did they seem? What do they 
say about the feast?” 

“They are excited and delighted. All 
their talk is of the famous people and the 
great retinues that are coming, and of how 
Ulster will show the Five Kingdoms what a 
real feast is like.” 

“ They are good folk all,” said Conachir. 
“They are very good folk. You have no 
other news?” 

“There is nothing to report, master, but 
that everything is well.” 

“ You have no tidings from Scotland?” 

‘None, master, or little.” 

“Even a little news is news,” said he. 
“Tell it, however little it be.” 

“They have been chased again,” said 
Lavarcham in a low voice. ‘‘ Everywhere 
they go they are hunted like foxes. They live 
under the weather, crouching like wild crea- 
tures in the bracken of a hill-side, or hiding 
in rocks and caves by a howling shore.” 


165 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


‘They were delicately reared,” he mur- 
mured. 

“They never knew hardship,” Lavar- 
cham whimpered, ‘‘and my babe y3 

‘“Ah yes, your babe! How old would 
she be now, that babe of yours?” 

‘Close on twenty-three years, master.” 

‘And I am forty-seven. She has all her 
days in front of her still.’ 

‘What days will they be, and she quaking 
in a burrow like a hare, or rising thin-legged 
from the bog like a yellow bittern?” 

“It is still the King of Scotland who pur- 
sues them?’ Conachur queried. 

‘Yes; since he set eyes on her seven years 
ago he has given them no rest, and he will 
give none until he has killed the three 
brothers and taken the girl for himself. That 
is the welcome of a king in Scotland. It is 
not the welcome the same lord got when he 
came here in fosterage.” 

‘He is still a young man,” said Conachir. 

“Young or old, it is not the act of a 
prince.” 

“The acts of a prince need a prince’s 
» criticism,” said the king severely. 


| avarcham went silent. 
166 





SSN ely erin Fpl renee eel pte 


Ce ee Een eT ee ee 


Bh ype la Sip ATE tai 


ie ad 















CH. II DEIRDRE 


“Young men go wild at times, and it is 
their right; but older men can be of a wild- 
ness that no young man can understand,” 
said the king. 

He twisted sternly on Lavarcham. 

‘Love is told of in this way and that, but 
it is not told of as it is. . . . It is savagery 
in the blood, and pain in the bone, and greed 
and despair in the mind. It is to be thirsty 
in the night and unslaked in the day. It is 
to carry memory like a thorn in the heart. 
It is to drip one’s blood as one walks. Leave 
men to the things they know, and do you 
meddle with your own female businesses.” 

‘* Those children,” said Lavarcham stub- 
bornly, “are a woman's business, and _ his 
own subjects are matter for a king.” 

) They are our kinsmen indeed,” said 
Conachitr thoughtfully, “and their troubles 
shall be looked into. “We shal] speak of this 
again after the banquet.” | 

Lavarcham’s eyes were shining. 

“Yes, master,” she crooned. 

“Send in our butlers and all our masters,” 
said Conachir, 


167 


al 


CHAPTER III 


Tue king and the guests of honour, mainly 
members of his family and their wives, sat 
on a raised dais overlooking the banqueting 
hall. 

It was at the heart of the banquet. The 
food had been eaten, and mead and ale 
and wine were circulating. Gentlemen were 
politely pledging each other’s ladies, and the 
ladies were feverishly considering each other’s 
costumes and ornaments. 

“Every one,’ Emer explained in her clear, 
sweet voice to Cuchulinn, “every one who 
has any hair at all wears it this way.” 

“Tt is the Connacht fashion,” said Crus- 
craid the Stammerer. 

‘Tt is Maeve’s fashion,’ Emer corrected. 

“There must be three plaits,” she con- 
tinued, ‘“‘two twisted round the head and 


168 











CH. Ill DEIRDRE 


caught in a brooch, and one hanging down 
the back. I think it is a charming fashion.” 

‘I think,” Conachtr smiled, ‘that our 
ladies might content themselves with our 
own good Ulster customs.” 

‘There are Ulster customs, indeed,” said 
Emer, “but there are no fashions. One 
must go to Connacht for that.” 

“If it depended on the ladies,” said Laeri, 
‘“we might let the grass grow over the Black 
Pig’s Dyke.” 

“Shoulder torques are worn smaller in 
Connacht just now,” Emer continued, eyeing 
superciliously the ornaments of a neighbour. 
“Just like mine,” she added complacently. 

Cuchulinn laughed boisterously. 

“Just like yours,” he mocked. “Why, 
you know well, my dove, I took that torque 
on the last spoil I made in Connacht.” 

Great good humour descended on Cona- 
chur. | 

“Ts that where the torque came from, my 
soul? Your sweet lady must show it to me 
more closely. You had a hard fight on that 
occasion?” 

“I got away from them,” the Ci answered 
modestly. 


169 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“You got away from them only when you 
got home,” Bricriu jeered. ‘‘It was good 
running, my sweet.” 

“They were very persistent,” the Cu ad- 
mitted laughingly, ‘but I got away with my 
spoil.” 

“You know how the Connacht men ex- 
plain the fact that you are still alive?” 

“Tt will be an unpleasant explanation if 
it is explained by Bricriu,” said Emer. 

“T should like to hear it,’’ said Cona- 
chur. 

“They are telling each other that our Cu 
was so beautiful they could not bear to kill 
him: think of that, Cucuc.” 

“Tt is a stupid sentimental reason,” 
orowled Laeri. 

‘It is a good, honourable reason,” Emer 
flashed. “It is not a reason you will ever 
give for letting a man escape.” 

“No,” said Bricriu, ‘‘ Laeri’s excuse when 
he doesn’t bring his man home is that he 
couldn’t catch him.” 

‘“And that,” Laeri retorted, ‘‘ would be 
the Connacht men’s reason for not getting 
the Cu, if a Connachtman could tell the truth 
about anything.” 


170 


ra 
i 
i 
+ 





CH. I DEIRDRE 


“ They tell the truth when it js pleasant,” 
said Emer, “and when it is not pleasant they 
tell a lie: they are a polite people, which is 
more than we are.” 

~ Ohls-Oh!” -Conachiir laughed. 

‘Their lies come from a good heart and 
a love of happiness, while our truths come 
grumph, grumph, grumph like the snarling 
of a badly trained dog.” 

"Oh! Oh!” Conachit roared. 

“Conall, what do you say of these Con- 
nacht people? You also have been among 
them lately.” 

“They are honourable fighters,” said 
Conall. 

“No man can pray for a better enemy than 
a Connachtman,” Fergus assented. ‘They 
come on where another would go back, and 
when they go back it is either through pity 
or poetry.” 

‘Come,’ said Conachtr, “their compli- 
ment to the Ci has been repaid, and we can 
talk of something else. What do you think 
of our banquet?” 

“There is nothing to be said,” cried 
Emer; “it is perfect.” 

“Everybody seems happy,” said the com- 


I7I 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


placent king, as he looked down the Red 
Branch. 

His guests also stared down the hall. 

“They seem happy and are happy,” said 
Cichulinn. He turned to his servant and 
charioteer. 

“Taeg,” he cried, “you do not love me! 
My cup is empty.” 

“My darling,’ Laeg replied, “‘you have 
drunk as much as is good for you.” 

“J shall drink as much as is bad for me if 
I please,” said Cuchulinn, “so bring me 
some mead, my treasure.” 

“T shall bring you ale or cider.” 

“Mead,” said the Cu. 

“ Ale, my little love,” said the charioteer. 

“Bring mead for the Cu when he wants 
it,” Emer ordered indignantly. 

“Sweet mistress,” said Laeg, “we have 
to bring him home to-night.” 

“Then give him ale,” said Emer. 

“Tt will surely be ale,” cried the delighted 
Conachur. 

“Mead,” Cuchulinn pleaded. 

“You will want to fight the moon and 
stars as we go home,’ Emer rebuked 
him. 

174 


way 





‘ 
| 
| 





CH, rt DEIRDRE 


“I can fight on ale just as well,” Cichu- 
linn asserted. 

“And it is good heady ale,” the king 
assured him. 

‘Let it be ale then,” said Cuchulinn. 

“TI think that not one person whom 
we know is absent from this banquet,” 
said Fiachra the Fair, Conachur’s youngest 
son. 

The conversation turned as they all looked 
down the great hall. ‘There is So-and-so, 
and So-and-so.” 

“Who,” said Emer, “‘is that tall, sad 
man with three men’s chins about him?” 

“He is such a one,” said Fiachra. 

“And the black bulk beside him with the 
beard that was stolen from a porcupine ?”’ 

“His name is Borach, the son of Annte. 
He has a fortified rock half in and half out 
of the sea. He catches sharks through his 
window, and his banquets are all made of 


fish.”’ 


“He is preparing a banquet for me,” 
Conachir cried. 


“T shall not accept a feast from that man,”’ 
said Fergus. 


“You must if he asks you,” Cuchulinn 
173 


DEIRDRE . BK. Il 


replied, ‘for it is geasa* on you not to refuse 
a feast.” 

“That is s0, but the feast must be ready 
before I am offered it, and as I do not visit 
his part of the world I shall never have to 
eat his sharks.” 

“You think there is no one absent,” asked 
Conachur. 

“Not one,” they agreed. 

“Tam sharper than you all,” he continued, 
“ for IL can count three who are not here.” 

Again they scrutinized the hall without 
finding any missing friends. They ap- 
pealed to the herald who stood by Conachur’s 
chair. He, too, was mystified. 

“What three are they?” said Fiachra. 

“The three sons of Uisneac,” the king 
replied smilingly. “The three Lights of 
Valour of the Geael.” 

At the words a moment’s silence came on 
the dais and no person knew exactly what to 
say or do. Fergus turned his direct gaze 
on the king. 

“They are in Scotland,” he said. 

“They went there seven years ago when 
Naoise ran away with Deirdre,” said Cona- 
chur. 

1 geasa= taboo. 


174 














CH. II DEIRDRE 


Conall Cearnach turned his harsh fore- 
head to the king. 

‘They are in great distress,” he said. 

“I have just heard so,” the king replied 
gravely. ‘‘We must bring them home.” 

At the words the face of every person 
changed. It was as though a cordial had 
been dropped into each heart. 

Cuchulinn flashed enthusiasm and delight 
at the king: 

‘You will let them come back?” 

“They shall be at our next banquet.” 

“If I could love you more,” Fergus 
afirmed, ‘“‘I would love you more for that.” 

“I know you love me well,” said Cona- 
chur, “and I love you, my heart.” 

“We have been wearying to see Naoise 
again,” cried Cuchulinn. 

‘What is he like?” said Emer. 

‘He is under geasa about his return,” 
Bricriu interposed. 

Conachur turned abruptly to him. 

“What geasa is that?” 

“He will come back in the company of 
Fergus or of Conall or of the Cu, otherwise 
he will not come back.” 


“Ah!” said Conachir. 
175 


DEIRDRE BK. li 


“He was always a sensible, far-seeing 
boy,” Bricriu continued thoughtfully. 

The king’s eye rested on Bricriu for one 
weighty moment ere he replied: 

‘We shall send one of the three, or all of 
the three to fetch him.” 

“What is she like?” Emer insisted. 

Bricriu replied: 

“She has been sleeping in ditches for six 
years. She will be like nothing that you 
have ever heard of, sweet lady.” 








She ”» said Cuchulinn. 
Salie ” said every voice at the one 
moment. 


“She,” said Conachur with a grave smile, 


“was called the Troubler; she has given — 


and received her share of trouble.” 


176 


‘ 





CHAPTER IV 


“You understand?” said the king. 

“TI understand well, master,” said Lavar- 
cham. 

“First you are to send Conall to me. 
Half an hour afterwards you shall send 
Cuchulinn. In another half-hour you shall 
send me Fergus, and when he comes you 
shall see that Borach is in waiting.” 

‘T understand well, master.” 

“In a little while you shall see your babe 
again.” 

She scrutinized his face humbly and 
gravely. 

“You are most gentle, master.” 

‘‘ Are you not contented?” 

“I am filled with joy and grief,” she 
answered. 


“And grief!” the king echoed mildly. 
177 N 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“She will not be the girl I knew,” said 
Lavarcham. 

“How so?” 

“She will have been destroyed by hard- 
ship.” | 
“Girls are tougher than women pretend,” 
said Conachur. 

“A man grows directly from the boy he 
was,” she continued. ‘‘He keeps the boy 
you knew even when he is an old man. But 
a girl grows suddenly at an angle to all that 
she was. She becomes a stranger in a year.” 

“Hum!” he scoffed. 

“The Deirdre we knew is dead, and some 
weather-wise, weather-wasted woman will 
look at me with unknown eyes and say, 
‘How do you do.’ I shall not know how 
to talk to her,” said Lavarcham. 

“T£ it is so we shall see it so,’ said Cona- 
chur. ‘Go now and send me Conall, and 
then the others in the order I told you.” 

Lavarcham left the room. 

When she was beyond the king’s hearing 
she stood for a good five minutes musing 
deeply within herself; listening as it were 
to her heart, to her instincts, to that monitor 
on whom we call when the times are moment- 


178 

















CH. IV DEIRDRE 


ous and doubtful and there is no other help 
but our own to be summoned. She sighed 
inaudibly, tremulously, and went about her 
business. 


Conall Cearnach stood in the doorway. 

“Good, O Chief and King!” he saluted. 

“Life and happiness!”? Conachiur replied 
briskly. ‘Sit here, my heart, for there is 
but one chair. I shall walk up and down 
while we discuss this business.” 

His guest sat down. 

“It is about Uisneac’s boys. You think 
they should come home?” 

“Every one thinks so; there is a gap 
among your gentlemen while they are away.” 

Conachur nodded. 

‘There is an even worse gap among your 
captains.” 

itis SO.” 

‘“And among the boys growing from the 
troop,’ Conall resumed, “‘there is no one to 
replace these three. They were already at 
the force of manhood, and even then their 
skill and knowledge was remarkable.” 

‘True,’ Conachur agreed. ‘They were 
trained by me.” 


179 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


The last six years of combat and ambus- 
cade and flight will have made them but the 
better soldiers.” 

The king strode to his visitor and laid a 
hand on his shoulder. 

“Conall, my friend, these three have 
treated me shamefully.” 

“The only way to forgive a thing is to 
forget it. You have forgiven, Conachur— 
and forgotten.”’ 

“If they returned with you, Conall, and 
if evil happened to them while under your 
surety, what would you do?” 

Conall rose from his chair, and in rising 
displaced the king’s hand. He looked at 
the king with his steady, pale regard. 

“If evil came to a person placed under my 
protection I would kill the person by whom 
that evil came.” 

Conachir laughed merrily. 

“Even the king himself?” he quizzed. 

-““T would kill any person that dishonoured 
me,’’ said Conall sternly. 

‘You would be quite right to do so,’ 
Conachir heartily. 

He seated himself in the chair that Conall 
had vacated. 


’ 


said 


180 








CH. IV DEIRDRE 


“The matter I wish to discuss is your 
uncle, Cet mac Magach, Cet of Connacht. 
That man scorns our borders, and his dep- 
redations are costly and impertinent. Our 
young men also are not equal to that able 
reiver. Could you not talk to him, Conall, 
and draw him off us?” 

“I talk to Connachtmen with a sword.” 

“You may talk to him that way if you 
please.” 

Conall reviewed the invitation imperturb- 
ably. 

“TI would not care to kill Cet mac Magach. 
He is my mother’s brother.” 

“And he is not an easy person to kill,” 
said Conachir. ‘‘We shall make our own 
arrangements about him. Blessings and long 
life to you!” 

The dismissed champion strode from the 
room. 

‘That man,’ Conachir thought moodily, 
“has been hammered together stone by 
stone, and is no more than a petrified vanity. 
He loves nothing but his honour, which is 
that he loves himself.”’ 

‘““Come in, the Cu,” he called: ‘‘Come 
in, and an hundred welcomes, my sweet lad.” 


ISr 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


Cuchulinn, magnificent in red silk and 
gold embroideries, came leaping in. 

“Well, my pulse!” cried Conachir. 
‘And you have a new mantle!” 

“Emer made it,” the Cu boasted. ‘She 
does the finest embroidery in the world. She 
told me so herself.’ 

“If she told you so——” said Conachir. 
“Let me look at the sleeve. It is not bad, 
my delight. But I have a few pieces some- 
where—Did you pass Conall Cearnach as 
you came in?” 

‘I did; he smiled a frozen smile at me, 
and clapped my shoulder with a fist of lead.” 

‘“We were arguing about honour. If a 
person was placed under your protection and 
was then killed, what would you do, Cucu- 
cenit: 

‘TI would kill the other person,” said 
Cuchulinn. 

“If it was the king, my pet?” 

“IT would kill the king.” 

Conachur sat round at him in a'rage. 

“Would you kill me?” he demanded. 

“TI would,” Cuchulinn returned as fiercely. 
“TI would kill any one who destroyed a person 
under my protection.” 


182 





CH. IV DEIRDRE 


“You would not kill me, Cuchulinn!” 

“As sure as dawn begins the day.” 

“ Begone, young puppy. Begone, cocks- 
comb,” he thundered. 

‘“ Honour ”” Cuchulinn commenced. 

“You do not love me,” the king stormed. 

“TI do love you.” 

“Begone,” the king roared, and stamped 
the floor. 

The laughing Cichulinn backed before 
his rage. 

“T do love you,” he shouted; and he con- 
tinued to shout, “I love you. ..TI love 
you,’ until he reached the end of the cor- 
ridor and turned the corner, where the 
guards poked each other in the ribs and 
giggled with joy. 

Conachtir tugged at his beard half jn 
anger and half in laughter. 

Another vanity in a mantle, he thought. 
That boy loves me indeed, and he would as 
surely kill me, for it is certain that I could 
not think of killing him. Is there no person 
in my realm who loves me better than his 
own poor pride? And what a three that— 
Naoise—must choose for his sureties! 

He strode savagely up and down the room. 


183 





DEIRDRE BK. I! 


“We shall see now what Fergus is like,” 
he sneered. ‘He professes to adore me, 
and eyes me with the devotion of a dull dog. 
A dull dog he is, and a monster of sufhi- 
ciency to boot.” 

If he dares to thwart me—the king 
gloomed, and went into a bitter rage of 
meditation. 

A great voice boomed on him. 

“Good, my soul, Conachur!”’ 

“It is Fergus,” cried the king joyfully, 
and strode to meet his visitor. 

“Come, my pulse and best. Sit you and 
I shall stand. Nay, sit,” he chided gently. 
“Indeed, if things were right you should sit 
always, and this man,” tapping his own 
breast, ‘‘should bend a lover’s knee before 
you. You bear no ill-will, sweetheart, for 
that trick of long ago?” 

The giant sat. 

“TJ never think of it, or I think of it with 
relief when I remember the Judgement Seat, 
and the knots and tangles and questions that 
came day by day. I was not bad at justice, 
but I was a sad fumbler at law, and the best 
man has the best place, my dear. Do not tor- 
ment yourself with memories of that old : 


184 














CH. IV DEIRDRE 


He halted for a word. 

“Treachery,” said Conachur. 

‘That is not the word I wanted,” Fergus 
laughed. “You are too sensitive, Conachiur. 
The nobles agreed and I agreed that you 
should be the king, and I am your most 
loving subject.” 

“You do love me?” 

“Have I not proved it?” the other 
smiled. 

“Many a time. Times out of mind,” 
said Conachur. 

He turned aside and closed his eyes. 
A pang of dull hate smouldered and stirred 
in him. 

“If this man were dead,” he thought with 
weary despair. “If this man would but 
cease and disappear and begone, how free 
my soul could be.” 

He turned again to Fergus. 

“Let us talk of other things,” he said. 
“Those sons of Uisneac z 

“You did a rare deed there,” said the 
other approvingly. 

“Rare or not rare they will be brought 
back and you shall go for them.” 

Fergus nodded. 





185 


DEIRDRE BK. II 





“Tf they claim my protection a one 
began. 

“They do claim it, and they will return 
under your protection.” 

“Then I shall go for them. I shall be 
glad to see these boys again: they had the 
makings of great fighters in them.” 

“That is settled,” said Conachur. ‘‘ You 
can start to-day?” he inquired. 

“T can start within the hour.” 

‘* Good.” 

Conachir mused, and turned thoughtful 
eyes on his companion. 

“If anything happened to these three 
while they were under your protection, 
Fergus, what would you do?” 

“T would kill the person who interfered 
with my protection.” 

‘No matter who it was?” 

‘“No matter who it was.” 

“JT wonder would our mutual love with- 
stand even an attack on honour,” said 
Conachir thoughtfully. ‘“‘ There are bounds 
to love, but I doubt that I could lift a hand 
against you even if you attacked my honour.” 

‘Our love is a great bond,” said Fergus 
simply; “it would be hard to destroy.” 


186 





CH. IV DEIRDRE 


“Nevertheless,” the king smiled, “if I 
injured your honour; say that I attacked 
these sons of Uisneac while in your surety, 
your affection for me would scarcely with- 
stand that.” 

“That would be a hard case indeed,” 
Fergus laughed. 

“You would kill me?” the king queried 
with a genial smile. 

‘You know,” said Fergus, ‘that I could 
not kill you whatever you did.” 

“We love one another well,” said 
Conachur. “It is a great thing to love 
as we do, my friend.” 

“But now,” he continued briskly, ‘we 
must attend to this troublesome business, 
and we must have a third person present 
in order that the world may know how we 
despatch it.” 

He clapped his hands, and, to the servant 
who appeared: 

‘Who is in waiting?” 

= boracn, lord.’ 

‘Tell him to come here.” 

“That is the man who feeds his guests 
on sharks,” said Fergus. 

‘““H[e is on duty of honour to-day,” the 


187 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


king replied carelessly, ‘“‘and he will be 
witness to the world of my _ instructions 
and of your charge. Come forward, good 
Borach.”’ 

The bulky man strode in. 

‘You shall listen to my instructions to our 
dear Fergus and you shall be the witness to 
this arrangement.” 

Fergus thereupon stood up and Conachur 
seated himself. 

‘Fergus, my friend, you shall go to 
Scotland and bring back to this court the 
three sons of Ujisneac and the woman 
Deirdre. There shall be no delay about 
the execution of this duty.” 

‘There shall be no _ delay,” Fergus 
affirmed. 

‘The instant they set foot in Ireland you 
shall proceed here with them; and if, from 
any cause whatsoever, you cannot come 
yourself, you shall cause them to come to 
me without the delay of even one half- 
hour.” 

“That will be done,’’ said Fergus, “but 
I shall be with them.” 

‘With you or without you, whether they 
arrive by day or by night in Ireland, they 


188 








CH. IV DEIRDRE 


shall be sent here to me without the delay 
of even one half-hour.” 

“That will be done,” said Fergus. 

“I bind that on you to the letter,” said 
Conachiur. 

“I accept it so,” Fergus returned. “I 
shall bring my two sons to Scotland, and if, 
by any miracle, I should be delayed myself, 
they shall go forward with every speed and 
deliver these four people safely at Emain 
Macha.” 

“A speedy return to you,” said Conachur. 
“Go at once, my dear friend. But you, 
Borach, stay yet awhile. I have the matter 
of our feast to discuss with you.” 

Fergus smiled broadly as he with- 
drew. 

“Sharks,” he murmured quite joyfully. 
‘ Sharks!” 


189 


CHAPTER V 


On the slope of a sunny hill overlooking 
Loch Eitche, Deirdre was cooking the meal 
which her husband and his brothers had 
run to earth and carried home on their 
shoulders. 

“The food is ready,” she called. 

“Tt is not as ready as I am, for I could 
eat land and water,” Ardan averred. 

“We shall not give you any,” she 
mocked. 

“Serve the greedy person right,” said 
Ainnle. ‘He eats in his sleep.” 

“But I must get the part I killed,” 
Ardan protested. 

‘What part is that?” | 

“T don’t know its name, but it is the 
tenderest part.” , 

“This is also a thievish person,” said 


190 








CH. V DEIRDRE 


Ainnle indignantly; ‘‘he is trying to claim 
the part I killed.” 

“Fight for me, Naoise!’® Ardan im- 
plored. “Be on my side, Deirdreen!”’ 

“You shall be served last,” said Deirdre 
severely, “and you shall get a tough piece.” 

‘““Ochone! ochone for ever!” he lamented. 

“How do you like that piece?” said 
Deirdre vindictively. 

“I could eat a cow’s horn if you cooked 
it,’ he wheedled. “Won't you give me 
more in a minute, little sister ?”’ 

‘‘T shall give you ten kisses,” said Deirdre. 

‘“Do not go between that man and his 
meat,’ Ainnle warned; ‘he will bite 
you.” 

“The law says that you are my brother, 
but I shall certainly divorce you,” the other 
cried, ‘‘and then you will be sorry.” 

‘You are silent, Naoise!’’ said Deirdre. 

““No man can talk with his mouth full 
except me,” Ardan explained. 

fataltean hour: ago,’ said Naoise; “1 
saw a ship beating in from the sea.”’ 

‘A fishing-boat?” 

“TI think it was a boat from Ireland.” 


“Why should you think so?” 
IQI 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“Tt had the cut of an Irish boat.” 

“Tf it is any of our friends from Ireland,” 
said Ainnle, “they will be almost at the strand 
now.” 

‘We have no friends in Ireland,” Deirdre 
returned coldly. 

“Run to the strand, Ardan my pulse, 
and see who came in that ship.” 

The boy scrambled to his feet. 

“If they are friends I'll give them kisses. 
If they are enemies I'll steal their supper.” 

But Deirdre was woe-begone as_ she 
looked on the two brothers. 

“What ails you, little sister?” Ainnle 
inquired. 

“T had a dream last night,” she replied, 
‘Cand it troubles me.” 

“We share all things, and our troubles. 
Tell us your dream.” 

Deirdre looked away distantly to the 
Seat 
“T dreamed that three birds came flying 
from Emain Macha.” 

“Happy birds,” said Naoise dreamily, 
“that can fly, and fly back.” 

“They had each a sip of honey in their 
beaks. They left the three sips of honey 


192 


SOS 








ee pt - 
2 aoe 











CH. Vv DEIRDRE 


with us, and they took away from us three 
sips of our blood.” 

‘The ending,” said Naoise, “‘is not so 
sweet as the beginning.” 

‘‘How do you interpret that dream?”’ his 
brother asked. 

“IT think that three people will come to 
us carrying a sweet, deceitful message from 
Conachutr.”’ 

“A dream is a dream,” he soothed her. 

“And my dreams!” she cried. ‘‘ How 
many times have we fled on the advice of 
my dream? and as we looked back we 
saw that happening which we fled from. Is 
that true, brother?” 

“Tt is true. Our Deirdre has second 
sight.” 

Naoise turned his shoulder along the 
grass, and laid his ear to the wind. 

‘I hear a shout,” he said. 

‘Tt is some man of these parts giving a 
hunting call,”’ she answered. 

“It seemed to me like the shout of an 
Irishman.” 

‘It may be Ardan returning.” 

“It is not his call.” 

“It is Fergus and his two sons,” said 


193 O 


DEIRDRE BK. It 


Deirdre miserably. ‘‘They are coming 
to us with three sips of honey in their 
mouths.” 

“What is in Fergus’s mouth is in his 
heart also,” Naoise cried joyfully. ‘One 
time or another even your dream may be 
wrong, for if Fergus agrees to be a messenger 
the message will be as true as his own 
truth.” 

“Remember,” said Deirdre, “that I told 
you they were coming without having seen 
thenn: 

Fergus and his two sons, with Ardan 
doing circles and whoops around them, rose 
on a slope of the hill, and came striding over 
the tussochs. Behind them came the shield- 
bearer and the shield itself, and at the sight 
Ainnle fled to meet them, but Naoise drew 
back to keep Deirdre company, for she had 
not moved. 

“Tt is Fergus,” he said, with shining eyes. 

“Te has come for our blood,” said 
white-lipped Deirdre. 

“Queen of queens,” her husband 
laughed, “‘you do not know Fergus.” 

At that the whole band came together, 
and they all kissed each other fondly. 


194 








CH. V DEIRDRE 


“Welcome to this land,” said Naoise. 

“And thou art Deirdre!” cried Fergus, 
as he kissed her on either cheek. 

She smiled wanly as she returned his 
kisses. 

‘We shall teach you to laugh in Ireland,” 
he trolled. 

‘What news is there from the lovely 
country?” her husband demanded. 

Bae Hembest..« Theenews that you are to 
return there.” 

“Ah!” said Naoise. 

“The king himself has sent me to bring 
you home under my surety and _ protec- 
tion.” 

‘“Whoo-oop!” said Ardan. 

‘He bids me tell you that he has forgiven 
you and wishes you all happiness.” 

But Deirdre turned to him, smiling and 
fearful. 

“We are happy here in Scotland,” she 
said. 

‘Nay,’ said Fergus, “‘one cannot be 
satisfied when one is in exile, for his native 
land is dearer to a man than any other.” 

Sihis is, truly .a dear country,’» she 
replied. 


195 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“And it is well known,” Fergus con- 
tinued, “that if a man of Ireland had the 
lordship of another country he would yet 
be unhappy unless he could see Ireland 
every day.” 

‘‘ It is so,” said Ainnle. 

‘There is no one knows its truth better 
than the sons of Uisneac,” cried Naoise. 

‘You see,” the great man chided her... __ 

‘““T know that this is a dear land,” said 
Deirdre stubbornly, ‘“‘and that here the sons 
of Uisneac might rise to any destiny they 
aimed for.” 

‘It may be so,” Naoise affirmed. ‘But 
Ireland is dearer to me than Scotland.” 

‘‘ Scotland is safer,” she said. 

“Will you be safer in Scotland than with 
me?” cried Fergus in amazement. “I have 
yet a little power,” he smiled. 

“We will go with you,” said Naoise. 

‘Do not go, my pulse,” said Deirdre in 
great agitation. ‘Do not trust yourself 
where Conachir is.” 

“Women and cats dislike change,” 
Naoise laughed, ‘“‘but you will love this 
change.” 

In half an hour they strode down the hill, 


196 











CH. V DEIRDRE 


and in an hour their sails were bent for 


Ireland. 
It was then Deirdre made her first poem, 
beginning 


A lovable land is that in the east, 
Marvellous Alba ... 


197 


CHAPTER VI 


As they approached harbour they noticed a 
band waiting at the landing-place, and these 
people raised mighty cheers as the ship 
swung. 

“That man!’? said Fergus, indicating 
one who stood apart and issued commands. 
“T surely know that man! It 1s Borach,” 
he laughed. ‘It is the man who feeds 
people on sharks,” and he explained to his 
party all that he had heard of Borach at the 
banquet. 

“The gods be praised,” he murmured, “we 
cannot wait for his feast even if he offers it.” 

When they landed Borach ran to meet 
them. He kissed Fergus three times, and 
he kissed each of the others also. 

“Welcome to this land,” he said; ‘‘all 
Ireland welcomes you.” 

198 





CH. VI DEIRDRE 


He looked with his black, deep-set peep 
at Deirdre and kissed her, but when she 
looked at him he turned aside. 

He was ill at ease, and all his move- 
ments were self-conscious and unhappy. He 
turned, almost truculently, to Fergus. 

“Fergus,” he said, “I am honoured to 
see you in my lordship.” 

“You are kind,” said Fergus, “and I 
shall bind you to visit me in mine.”’ 

‘I am so delighted,’ Borach continued 
hastily, ‘that I have prepared a feast for you, 
such as is only offered to a king.” 

“The king did say,” Fergus rumbled 
joyfully, “that you had a feast ready for 
him.” 

“That is the feast I am offering to you,” 
said Borach. 

“What?” cried the giant. 

‘The king has notified me that he cannot 
come to my banquet, so I am offering it to 
you instead.” 

Fergus stared at him: 

“You were present, and you _ heard 
Conachutr’s instructions that there should be 
no delay on this journey. I shall come and 
feast with you another time, my dear.” 


199 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


“T insist that you stay and feast with me 
for one week,” Borach growled. 

“You insist!’? he murmured in astonish- 
ment. 

“T invoke your geasa,” said the other 
stubbornly. ‘You must remain with me 
for a week.” 

At that Fergus became one purple mass 
from the crown of his head to the soles of his 
feet, and his face swelled so that the by- 
standers feared he would burst with the 
excess and violence of his rage. Borach 
was nervous, but his own men were around 
him, and although he was terrified of 
Fergus he was yet more frightened of the 
king. 

“T insist,’ he shouted, ‘and you cannot 
refuse a feast that is offered to you kindly.” 

“This is a trick,’ said Fergus. “ You 
know my ‘oath; you listened to it, for the 
king made me swear in your very presence, 
that, was it by day or by night, I should 
speed the sons of Uisneac to him from the 
moment we landed. And you offer me a 
feast and a week’s delay! What dog’s 
deed do you intend, you Borach? Do you. 
not value your life?” he roared. | 


200 














CH. VI DEIRDRE 


“TI value my life indeed,” Borach replied, 
“and,” looking round on his attendants, 
“and I shall take great care of it. I hold 
you to the feast, Fergus.” | 

“Come apart with me,” said the be- 
wildered giant to his companions, ‘‘and let 
us discuss this wonder.” 

“What ought we to do?” he asked. 

“It seems that you must make a choice,” 
said Deirdre timidly. 

“ What choice is there, sweet queen?” 

“You have to choose whether you will 
forsake the feast or forsake us,’ she mur- 
mured. 

Her heart swelled as she spoke, so that 
her voice was not steady, for she was aston- 
ished and unhappy and her mind was be- 
wildered. 

‘In truth I must leave one or the other,”’ 
said Fergus. 

Naoise and his brothers stared at the 
fogged noble. 

“Dear champion,” she pleaded, ‘‘it 
would be more fitting to leave the feast, but 
it would not be right to leave us in the 
middle of our enemies.” 

“But I cannot leave a feast,” Fergus 


201 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


explained, “for that is my compact with 


the gods. One cannot break his geasa.”’ 

They stared at him and at one another in 
consternation. 

“Whatever is in his mind, this Borach 
will not release me from the eating of his 
accursed sharks,” Fergus continued wrath- 
fully. ‘‘Eat them I must, but I shall leave 
my sons with you, and they will protect you 
on the road to Emain.” 

“By my hand,” said Naoise, “you are 
doing a great deal for us! The protection 
we seek is that of your name and fame and 
station. Any other protection we do not 
value, for we are well used to taking care of 
ourselves.” | 

“ But ” said Fergus. 

“We did not come here under your 
weapons,” said Naoise, “we came under 
your guarantee.” 

“You mistake me,” said Fergus mildly. 
“My sons carry my guarantee, -and with 
them you will be as secure as though I were 
present.” 

He turned to Rough-Red Buinne and 
lollann the Fair. 

“Ts not that so?” 


202 














CH. VI DEIRDRE 


“Tt is so,” said Buinne. 

“The Council of All Ireland would not 
tolerate the breaking of this notable surety,” 
said [ollann. ‘It is known now through 
the whole country.” 

‘And what man would dare to break my 
guarantee?’ Fergus inquired. 

Naoise bit his lip. 

‘Let us go on,” said he. 

He turned his level gaze on Fergus’ sons. 

‘“You are our guarantors,” he said, ‘and 
Wwe accept your protection.” 

They returned to where the black-avised 
chieftain was waiting, and him Fergus stared 
and out-stared until he was reduced to a 
mass of unhappiness. 

“T shall eat sharks because I must, 
Borach,” he thundered. 

‘““What sharks are you talking about?” 
said Borach. 

‘“Lead me to your miseries of the deep,” 
said Fergus, “but do not talk to me about 
them.” 


203 


CHAPTER VII 


As the travellers proceeded they were morose _ 
and thoughtful, and even Ardan’s high © 
spirits flagged. But as they looked on a © 
native sky and on the fields and hedge- 








rows of an Irish countryside something of | 


their disquietude was eased and a lighten- — 
ing of the heart became apparent in each of © 
them. ; 
“Dear girl,” said Naoise, and he placed © 
an arm about her shoulders. ‘‘ We are in 
Ireland,” he said. 1 

At the word every misery fled from — 
Ardan’s breast, so that he began to look 
truculently on his brother Ainnle, and even 
to give him an occasional shoulder as they — 
marched. 

Deirdre leaned to her husband. 

‘‘T have had other visions,” she said. 


204. 








CH. VII DEIRDRE 


She moved her hand languidly towards 
Fergus’ two sons, who strode a few paces in 
advance. 

‘These are our sureties!’ she mocked. 

“They represent their father,’ Naoise 
afirmed. 

“They represent nothing but them- 
selves,” she answered, “and if their father 
leaves us for a feast, they will leave us for 
any other prank.” 

‘It was his geasa,” said Naoise patiently. 

“ Whatever it was,” said Deirdre. 

‘We are utterly alone,” she continued. 
“We have no backing of any kind, and we 
will arrive in Emain Macha at the absolute 
mercy of Conachir.”’ 

She seized her husband’s arm. 

‘You also are under geasa not to return 
unless in the company of Fergus. He may 
be delayed for a week. Let us camp here 
and wait until he comes up with us.” 

‘Dear child,” said Naoise, “how can we 
insult these good youths?” 

But Deirdre was in terrible agitation. 

“I dread appearing in the presence of 
Conachur if Fergus is not by us.” 

‘His guarantee is with us,” and Naoise 


205 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


indicated the two young men—“ There it is, 
four legs of it marching stoutly.”’ 

“At least,” she pleaded, “let us go to 
Ciichulinn’s fortress in Dun Dealgan and 
wait there until he or Fergus can come with 
us—if you will do that, I shall complain no 
more.” 

“Fergus,” he replied, ‘has bound him- 
self before the king that he would send us on 
without an hour’s delay.” 

‘And he bound himself to stay with us, 
but he has broken his word.” 

“We must keep his word for him with 
the king,” said Naoise. 

‘Another person’s honour is_ another 
person’s business. That compact is broken 
by him, and your geasa is not kept by keep- 
ing his. Let us turn to Dun Dealgan and 
take Cuchulinn’s protection.” 

Naoise indicated the two who were march- 
ing in front. 

‘“‘T shall ask their advice, and if they agree 
to it we will go to Dun Dealgan.”’ 

He called the two, and put the question 
to them. But they were scandalized. 

“You have no confidence in us,’ said 
Buinne. 


206 








CH. VII DEIRDRE 


“And none in our father’s word,” said 
Tollann. 

‘This woe has come on us because of 
your father’s word, and he has left us in 
our danger for a feast,” she raged. 

“The whole world,’ said  Buinne, 
“knows Fergus mac Roy, and the worth 
of his protection—You know it,” he said 
to Naoise, “although your queen does 
not.” 

“You are right,” said Naoise. ‘‘ We may 
go on without misgiving, my dove.” 

And they went on. 

On their journey the next day they 
reached Slieve Fuad. Deirdre strayed be- 
hind and in the movement and conversation 
her absence was not noticed for a long time. 
Naoise retraced his path from the White 
Cairn of the Watching, and came on her 
sleeping in a grassy hollow. When he 
awakened her she stared and clutched him, 
and cried wildly and bitterly. 

“What is it?” he asked in alarm. 

“I have had a vision,” she sobbed. “I 
have had a dreadful vision.” 

“What did you see?”’ 

“IT saw Tollann with no head on him and 


207 


DEIRDRE BK. 


I saw Buinne with his head safe on his 
shoulders.” 

Naoise took her in his arms. 

“Be glad,” he laughed, “that one of our 
friends will escape the doom you have 
planned for us all.” 

But she stared at him in distraction. 

“No friend of ours will escape,” she 
moaned. 

“But Buinne kept his head on in your 
dream!”’ 

‘The man who had no head had been 
fighting for us, and the man who had a head 
was fighting against us,” she whispered. 

Naoise was shocked. 

“How you have changed, my one 
treasure,” he said mournfully. 

She threw her arms about him. 

“Do not speak unkindly to me,” she 
begged. 

“That lovely mouth spoke always lovely 
things, and now it speaks nothing but 
evil.” 

She closed his lips with her hand. 

‘“No, no,” she said. “Do not say more. 
Or say only that you love me. You do love 
me, my husband?”’ 


208 





CH. VII DEIRDRE 


“Little tender wife!” he smiled. 
“ After all the dangers we have gone through 
you are frightened at last.” 

“Yes,” she breathed, “I am terribly 
frightened. I die of fear for us all. When 
I remember Conachtr ... He looked so 
at me, Naoise! He ! Come with 
me to Scotland. We will be safe there. 
We will be happy again. We will hunt in 
the Woods of Cuan and Glen da Rua. I 
shall never complain again in this life if you 
will come with me to Scotland. Let us go 
away. You and I, and our darlings, Ainnle 
and Ardan. He is so young to be killed, 
our brother Ardan. He is but twenty-one 
years old, and he is gay and loving and 
fearless. We will be together again; we 
four: alone and happy. Listen! we will 
hunt and feast and defend ourselves and 
fear nothing. You shall win a kingdom 
there: in sweet Alba of the heathery up- 
lands; but let us fly from Conachtr. You 
do not know him. Only I and Lavarcham 
know that terrible king. He is thoughtful. 
He is bitter and unforgiving, and_ his 
memories are rooted deep like the roots of 
a deep tree.” 





209 P 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


But Naoise put her hands away. 

“Tf you must speak badly of others,” 
he said coldly, ‘“‘speak to me of foreigners, 
and not of my own people!” 

‘Alas, my husband!” said Deirdre. 
‘ Alas and alas for all of us!” 

She rose wearily. 

“Do not be angry with me. Let that 
last unhappiness be spared me. I am your 
wife, Naoise. I would prefer that evil 
should happen to all the world rather than 
one small misfortune should come to you. 
I am not Deirdre any more. I am 
Misery.” 

But he kissed and petted her, putting 
back the hair from her brow and framing 
her face in his hands. 

“We are here now,” he said, ‘and no 
matter what awaits us we must go to meet 
it. You would not wish me to run away, 
Deirdreen.”’ 

“We ran away before,” she said, “and 
we have greater reason to run away now 
than we had then. The spider is waiting 
for us in the web.” 

“You forget, and you will keep on for- 
getting it, that we are under the protection 


210 





CH. VII DEIRDRE 


of Fergus, and through him we are under 
the protection of all Ireland.” 

But she looked at him almost angrily. 

‘Fergus,’ she scoffed. ‘He is a traitor 
that Fergus. He is being used by the king 
to betray us.” 

Naoise bit his lip and his eyes became 
hard and sombre. 

“Let us go on,” he said. ‘We should 
reach Ard Saileach ere the evening.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


THEY stood on the slope of a hill in a rounded 
and rolling country looking down on Emain 
Macha. The evening was advanced, and 
the late sunlight, all a glimmer of gold, was 
shining tenderly on the city, so that the 
mighty, ten-acre palace of Conachur shone 
back again as though it also were a sun. 
The great bronze doors, polished like 
mirrors, were blazing in red lakes of flame, 
the glass windows of the women’s sunny 
rooms were like blinding pools of gold, and 
the roofs, painted in broad reaches of red 
and green and orange, glowed and sparkled 
in the mellow evening. 

“Tt is good to look on that again,’ 
Naoise in a low voice. 

“J had almost forgotten it,” said 
Ainnle. 


” said 


212 








CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


But Ardan squatted in the grass and stared 
and stared with his soul in his eyes. 

“You have not seen the city for seven 
years!” said Buinne. 

Naoise drew Deirdre to him. 

“ Are you not contented now, my heart?” 

“Our wanderings are ended,” he con- 
tinued tenderly. ‘‘ We are outlaws no more, 
and that long vagabondage is done with. 
You will sleep at last in a bed,” he smiled. 

‘Oh, my dear!” she breathed. 

“We are home again,” he said, and his 
heart filled suddenly so that he could not 
tell if it were really joy that stayed his 
tongue and blinded his eyes, or if the grief 
of seven long years had risen within him 
like a wintry tide. 

But Deirdre was not happy. She saw 
Ainnle’s contained joy, and the ecstacy in 
Ardan’s eyes. 

‘Alas, my darlings!” she said. 

“You still think,” said Naoise, “that 
the king of such a land can act towards us 
like a traitor?” 

“I shall give you a sign,” she replied 
mournfully and gently. ‘If Conachtr lodges 
us this night in his own house we are safe.” 


213 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


“Fle has sent for us of his own royal 
will,” said Ainnle, ‘“‘and he will lodge us 
as is proper, in the Royal Branch.” 

‘Poor trusting gentlemen!” said Deirdre. 
“Conachur could not live again in the house 
where you three had lodged. He will send 
us to the Red Branch.” 

“And if he does?” said Naoise. 

“T Ardan cried, ‘““am going to put a 
new edge on my sword if he does. ‘There 
is a good edge on it already,” he explained, 
“but I am going to put edges all over it.” 

“Tf we are sent to the Red Branch,” said 
Ainnle, “I shall let you give my blade a 
rub too.” 

“T call on Iollann and Buinne for protec- 
tion,” Ardan cried indignantly. ‘That man 
makes me work for him like a horse,” he 
complained. 

Naoise turned to the two sons of Fergus. 

“Tf we are sent to the Red Branch what 
will you do?”’ 

“We will go there with you,” said Buinne. 

“The king’s house is always filled with 
guests,’ JTollann said. “He cannot know 
just when we should arrive, and he may have 
no place for us at a moment’s notice.” 


214 





CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


‘There is nothing Conachtr does not 
know,” said Deirdre. ‘‘Borach will have 
sent a runner to tell of our arrival, and his 
own spies will have told the king in what 
place we camped each night, and at what 
hour we marched again in the morning. He 
knows now that we are here, and if he sends 
us to the Red Branch we are lost.”’ 

“IT am as full of curiosity as an old 
woman,” Naoise laughed. ‘Let us go on 
and find out everything that is going to 
happen.” 

In a short time they were among the 
streets and booths around Emain Macha, 
but the twilight had descended and the 
passers-by did not recognize the six travellers. 

“Yonder is the Speckled Branch, the 
Armoury,” said Ainnle. ‘The Boy Troop 
will be going to bed shortly. You re- 
member those nights, Naoise, and all the 
chattering?” 

“And the climbing out of windows by 
a cord,” said Ardan. ‘And the scrambling 
back again while the comrades above threw 
all the world at the guards who were trying 
to stick spears in us as we shinned up.” 


‘There is the Red Branch,” said Naoise. 
2ic 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


“Ts it truly full of dead men’s heads?” 
Deirdre chattered through frozen lips. 

“There is generally a head or two,” he 
answered carelessly, ‘‘ Connachtmen mostly.” 

“Very hairy, beardy, toothy kinds of 
heads,” said Ardan. ‘I remember them, 
and they used to get hairier and beardier 
and toothier every second day. At last,” 
he explained to Deirdre, ‘“‘there wouldn't 
be any head at all, no face at all, only a mat 
of hair as long as a woman’s, and it in knots, 
and a shiny grin among the knots.” 

“You are all wrong,” said Ainnle. “A 
dead man’s hair grows lank and long like 
a drink of water.” 

“Pooh!” said Ardan. ‘You remember 
everything! You are the great man of the 
world! The wind knots them and twists 
them and wobbles them all in and out like 
a doormat.” 

“Yonder is Conachtr’s house, the Royal 
Branch,” said Naoise. 

“We will give a good thundering knock 
at the door and make them jump,” said 
Ainnle gleefully. 

“Tl give it a kick,” said Ardan. 

Naoise did give a thundering knock. 


216 





CH. VIII DEIRDRE 


The door opened and a guard appeared. 

‘“Who asks admission at this hour?” he 
demanded. 

‘The sons of Uisneac.” 

The guard stared. 

‘“Come in, nobles, and sit for a moment 
while I seek instructions.”’ 

' Let a message be sent to the king,” 
said Buinne, “that the protection of Fergus 
mac Roy and those he protects have arrived 
as he ordered.” 

The chamberlain came, Scel, son of Bar- 
nene. 

‘The household have retired,’ he said. 
“But the king sends his regrets and court- 
esies, and has instructed that his noble 
guests are to be lodged in the Red Branch 
for this night. A guard will escort you 
there.” He motioned to the captain of the 
guard, who ranged his men. 

“Don’t forget about the edges you pro- 
mised to do for me,” said Ardan to his 
brother. 

“No wriggling, young lazy-bones,” Ainnle 
retorted. ‘‘ You shall do your work and be 
respectful to your betters also.” 

“Is not that man a tyrant?” said Ardan. 


ER ae, 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


He turned to the captain of the guard. 
“Fold me away from him, good sir,” he 
implored. 

“JT am at your orders, gentlemen,” said 
the smiling captain. 


. 


218 








CHAPTER IX 


But Conachir had not retired. 

He was seated in the central room away 
in the heart of his monstrous palace, and the 
great crystal ball swung at his shoulder: He 
had stared into it for hours and had seen 
nothing. 

Lavarcham also was there, seated humbly 
on a stool. 

“Fill my cup,” said Conachir. “I am 
thirsty to-night, my heart. I could drain a 
sea and not drown this thirst.” 

“You are troubled, lord. All this busi- 
ness has fevered you.” 

‘And you! Are you not excited at the 
thought of seeing your babe again?” 

“I have interested myself in so many 
things these seven long years, master, I have 
almost forgotten her. She has dropped out 


219 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


of my mind, and now | would as readily not 
see her as see her.” 

“TJ thought you loved that babe!”’ 

“ After all, she is not my babe. Felimid 
mac Dall’s wife bore her.” 

“Ts it so?’ Conachir mused. “T had 
almost forgotten that old tale.” 

“] had but the labour of rearing her, and 
of being disappointed by her,” she said 
bitterly. 


“You did not fill my cup, Lavarcham.” 

“TJ did, master, but you have emptied it.” 

“Fill it again, good friend... . She was 
beautiful, Lavarcham! She was a thing of 
joy and wonder!” 

“Young girls are beautiful while they are 


young, master, but in a few years they look 


like any other person.” 

“You think so?” 

“They get fat or they get thin. It is not 
girls that are lovely, master, it is youth.” 

“And I am forty-seven years of age | 
The years go by doing what I know to me, 
but for her there has been only the time to 
ripen what was immature. The green fruit 
will be ruddy and fragrant worked on by the 


220 
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CH. Ix DEIRDRE 


sun and the wind. What age is she now, 
woman?” 

“She is seven years older in time, and 
twenty years older in hardship. She will 
have forgotten how to lie in a bed, or how to 
eat proper food.” 

“She will surely have changed,” said 
Conachur. 

A brisk moment returned to the great 
man, and he aroused himself. 

‘How will she look after her years of 
lying in the butt of a wet ditch or in the bog?” 

“Ah me!”’ said Lavarcham. 

“She will have plodded over tough hills 
with a thin belly and a dry lip. She will 
have slept with her fingers in her mouth to 
keep them warm in the winter. She will 
be lean and red-handed and windy-faced; 
with the arches of her feet broken down by 
too much walking, and her knees sagging 
under her like an old ploughman’s. Is that 
how the Troubler will look, Lavarcham?”’ 

‘I think, master, that she may be a long, 
thin, tough woman. She will be rheu- 
matic ” 

“She will awaken in the night coughing 
like a sick horse,” said the cheerful king. 


22I 





DEIRDRE BK. I! 


‘“T do not wish to see her,’ said Lavar- 
cham sourly. 

‘“No more do I,’’ said Conachtir. ‘‘ Let 
her go.... My cup!” he murmured. 
‘“‘TLavarcham, you do not attend me well.” 

Again he became moody. 

“Tf I were not the king I would steal to 
the Red Branch and spy on her ruin through 
a window. I should like to see that she 
is lank and depressed. . . . Go you, Lavar- 
cham; the guards know your privileges. 
Look through the window and bring me 
back that tale.” 

‘‘I do not want to see her at all, master. 
Let her stay with the people she has chosen, 
and let her torment our sleep no more.” 

“Go, nevertheless, and bring me a full 
account of her. Fill up my, glass. Ex- 
amine her carefully, my soul, so that you 
can bring me a true report. But do not 
delay, for I shall be waiting for you. I am 
lonely to-night, woman; I am very lonely. 
Send me a man of the guard to fill my cup!” 

Lavarcham, with every sign of distaste, 
almost of annoyance, set on her errand. 


‘Sit there, and take your ease,” the king 
222 


2S. 


ee 


nti 


CH. Ix DEIRDRE 


ordered the guard who came in. “Do not 
stare at the floor, good soul, nor at the ceil- 
ing. Ah me! stand behind my chair then, 
and when my cup is empty refill it for me.” 

The embarrassed soldier moved gratefully 
to cover, and the king fell again to his woeful 
meditations. 

“Guard!” he said. 

“A Ri Uasal!” the guard rolled sonor- 
ously. 

‘“ Have you ever looked in a crystal?”’ 

‘ Never, king.” 

“Look in this crystal, my friend. Can 
you see anything?”’ 

‘There is a fog in the crystal.” 

“Tt has been there these three days. 
Look again, good lad.” 

“I think there is a woman’s face.” 

‘What sort of a woman?” 

“It has gone, majesty.” 

‘What sort was she?”’ 

‘““T saw the loveliest face that ever bright- 
ened the world. It seemed like the face of 
a sky-woman or a lady of the Shi.” 

“Sit on this little stool, and fill my cup.” 

“What age are you, guard?” 

‘Twenty-two years, majesty.” 

223 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“What is your name?”’ 

“T am called Strong Fist, sir.” 

“T remember you, Tréndorn, you are 
my hereditary man. Your father was my 
man before you. How did he die?” 

“Ee was killed by Naoise, the son of 
Uisneac, sir.” 

“T remember,’ said Conachtr, ‘and 
your two brothers were killed by that 
Naoise. Do you remember that also?”’ 

“T would not forget it, sir.” 

“There are things that one should not 
forget, guard. Would you do an ill turn 
to the same Naoise?”’ 

“Tf I had that chance I would take it, sir.” 

“TJe is in the Red Branch,” said Cona- 
chir. ‘‘He is there with the woman whose 
face you saw in the crystal. Go there for 
me, good soldier, and look through the 
window. See that no person within ob- 
serves you, for these are murderous and skil- 
ful men, and if they saw you they would 
stop your breath.” 

The guard stood glowering. 

“Tn what way do I get equal with Naoise ?”” 
he demanded. 

“Fach thing in its time, good soul, for 


224 





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CH. Ix DEIRDRE 


you would not understand how the king 
moves. This is but the first step, and the 
second shall be taken in no short time. 
Climb to the window, and look carefully at 
the woman who is there with Naoise. Ex- 
amine her well and bring me back news of 
how she seems and what she looks like. 
You have seen women before?”’ 

“T have, majesty.” 

“You know what to look for; you will 
know how to look at a woman. Go. Fill 
my cup, guard, and go on my errand.” 


225 QO 


CHAPTER X 


“STILL,” said Ardan, ‘‘we are not treated 
too badly. There is plenty of food.” 

‘“And there are beds in the alcove,” said 
Ainnle. 

“We shall sleep well to-night,” said 
Deirdre, and she burst into tears. 

They sat dumb, each feeling as if a chill 
wind had touched him. 

“Forgive me,” said Deirdre. ‘I shall not 
complain any more. Let us sit to our meat.” 

‘““T shall eat and eat and eat,’’ said Ardan. 
‘‘T am so hungry I could growl over my 
food.” 

“You shall be served first, Ardaneen,” 
said Deirdre, ‘‘and if there is one tender 
piece you shall have it.” 

“Our Buinne is even hungrier than I 
am, let him have the first piece.” 


226 








CH. x DEIRDRE 


Deirdre looked kindly at Buinne, but as 
she looked her eyes widened and she went 
white to the lips. She spoke to him with a 
shy smile. 

“You will have the first piece, Buinne,”’ 
she stammered. | 

“I shall take what comes,” said Rough- 
Red Buinne. 

Deirdre sank back in her chair. 

‘‘Naoise, my dear,” she said, “please 
carve for me. I am not well.” 

‘Buinne is sensible,” said Naoise. ‘He 
has a head on his shoulders.’’ He stumbled 
in his carving, and cast a swift glance at 
Deirdre. 

“The first portion,” he continued gravely, 
“shall be for Buinne, the second for Iollann, 
the third for Deirdre, the fourth for Ainnle, 
the fifth for Ardan, and the sixth for Naoise.”? 

“My piece is to be the tenderest,” said 
Ardan complacently, ‘Deirdre said so. 
Fight for me, Deirdreen! ” 

‘‘“Ardan, my dear brother,” said Deirdre, 
‘come to me and give me ten kisses.” 

“TPIl miss my turn,’ he wailed, as he 
moved round to her. 

They ate their supper, and were sitting 


227 


DEIRDRE BK. It 


at chess—that is Deirdre and Naoise were 
playing while the others watched the game, 
when there came a tapping at the door 
which was nearest to them. Naoise held 
a piece poised in his fingers. 

‘‘Go, Ainnle, and challenge that person.” 

‘Tt is a woman’s voice,” said Ainnle. 

iether comenn:, 

The great bolts were pushed back, and 
Lavarcham entered. 

‘““My babe, my treasure!’’ she cried, 
and she ran to Deirdre. 

‘““Oh, my sweet mother!” said Deirdre. 

“T have no time,’ Lavarcham panted. 
‘“‘T must fly back to the king. He sent me 
to spy on you through the window.” 

“There is danger, mother?” 

“There is terrible danger. Conachur’s 
household men are standing to arms in the 
Speckled Branch, and there is a posse at 
each of the gates of this place. He will 
attack before morning. Oh, Deirdre, 
Deirdre, that you could have come here 
knowing Conachir as I taught him to you! 
What madness brought you from Scotland, 
child? Are you glad to see me? Do you 
love your mother still, little one? I have 


228 








CH. xX DEIRDRE 


told the king that you would be ruined with 
hardship and sorrow; alas! you are more 
beautiful than ever. I shall tell him that 
you are one-eyed and lame, I shall tell him 
anything to quieten him for this night. 
To-morrow Naoise’s people will get news 
of your return and he may fear to attack. 
If only I can quieten him for this night! 
He is drinking. He may go to sleep. Oh, 
my darling, my one love! I must fly. 
Keep all the doors barred. Do not open 
to any one. I shall send messengers to 
Uisneac’s people. Kiss me again. Oh, my 
love of all loves! I must fly.” 

“ Ainnle, Ardan, run round all the doors. 
See that they are secure,” said Naoise. 

He turned to Buinne and Iollann. 

‘Your father may be too late to help us. 
I give you back your protection, gentlemen.” 

‘“‘T shall stay with you,” said Buinne. 

‘** And I,” said Iollann. 

“Good comrades!’’ Naoise cried, and his 
eyes sparkled with delight and gratitude. 

‘““We are five,” he said, ‘‘ trained to arms 
from the moment we could walk. No 
person of our quality will be against us, for 
no gentleman of Ireland would take part in 


229 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


such an attack. There will be only the 
common soldiery: hardy men, but as skil- 
ful at our trade as ploughmen. ‘They can- 
not break in, for the Red Branch was 
designed not to be broken into. These 
bronze door m 

“The windows!” said Ainnle. 

“God pity the man that gets in through 
a window,” said Naoise. ‘‘ Moreover, they 
are too high. A man’s legs would be 
splintered if he jumped from them.” 

“Fire!”? said Ardan. 

‘“Conachtr will not burn his own 
fortress.” 

“There is a man at the window now,” 
said Deirdre. 

Naoise’s hand was on the table. He 
picked up a heavy chessman of gold and 
ivory and with an underhand flick he sent 
it buzzing up and through the glass. 

A roar of pain came from without and 
then a scream, “My eye! my eye!” a 
voice wailed. 

“Te won’t peep through windows again 
in a hurry,” said Ainnle. 

“Conachir has overreached himself,” 
said Naoise. ‘We can hold out until the 


230 








CH. x DEIRDRE 


morning, and if lLavarcham  sends_ her 
messages my people will be baying around 
Conachir like wolves, and there will be 
many another one with them.” 

“The people of Fergus mac Roy will be 
with them,” cried Buinne. 

“That king will learn what it is to dare 
my father’s protection,” Iollann raged. 

“Why,” said Naoise joyfully, “we are 
as safe as if we were in Scotland.” 

“If we are only as safe as that!” said 
Ardan with a giggle. ‘‘Buinne, my soul, 
we used to be running from morning until 
night. We ate our food on the run. We 
used to run in our sleep. I tell the world 
that in six years I have not felt safe for a 
minute until this minute, for there are stout 
walls around us, and food to last a week’s 
siege. [he gods be praised,’ he said 
piously, ‘we cannot run even if we have to.” 

The band of young men shouted with 
laughter, and Deirdre chimed in as joyously 
as any of them. 


231 





CHAPTER XI 


“IT is as you thought, master,” said 
Lavarcham. ‘‘ The girl is ruined.” 

‘You saw her?” 

“Her cheeks are hollow and her eyes are 
red. One would pity her, master. Indeed, 
I shall go to see her to-morrow.” 

‘You did not want to see her any more,” 
said the king. 

‘Tt was so,” she replied humbly. “ But 
my heart was wrung when I looked on her 
wretchedness.”’ 

‘And the young men?” 

‘They are stout young men, master.” 

“And the guards that I posted?”’ 

‘They were at their posts.” 

‘There ends a tale, and seven of my poor | 
years . . .!’? said Conachir. ‘‘ What did she ~ 
look like, woman?” e 

232 











CH. XI DEIRDRE 


‘She is thin and haggard, and she leaned 
by the table as though all the weariness of 
the world were in her sides.” 

Deunue wea Said Conachur., “And 'we 
fash ourselves for these things and spend our 
years and our pith .. .!_ Fill my cup, Lavar- 
cham. Let the years go and the rest, for 
we are fools and children. Get to your rest, 
friend, and let me mourn my foolish years 
and all my nonsense.” 

‘“Nay, go to your bed also, sweet king,” 
said Lavarcham. ‘‘ You shall rest to-night, 
for that bad dream is ended. You will 
be troubled no more. ‘To-morrow will be 
a new day, and all that the world has is for 
the king.” 

“It is so,’ said Conachtr.. ‘This will 
be the last of those nights. Go to your 
bed, good soul, and I shall go to mine in a 
moment.” 

Lavarcham left the palace with her mind 
in a turmoil of weariness and fear, but with 
hope dawning in her soul. She sent secret 
runners to the men of Uisneac and to those 
of Fergus mac Roy, warning them that their 
chiefs were in urgent danger; and when she 
slept she was too happy even to remember 


233 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


what the king might do when he discovered 
her treachery. That memory would be for 
the morrow. 


But the king did not sleep. 

“T shall wait the report of that guard,” 
he said, ‘‘and then I will be able to sleep.” 
The guard came moaning and limping. 

‘What ails you, man?” said the astonished 
king. 

‘“Naoise,”’ the guard stammered. “ He 
has knocked out my eye.” 

He removed his hand from his face, and 
there was one eye there, and a bloody mess 
where the other should have been. 

“Did I not tell you,” the king stormed, 
“that they were murderous men? Did you 
take no heed in your work?” 

“Tt was the woman saw me,” the guard 
stammered. ‘‘She told the man, and before 
I could move he threw a chessman at me 
and knocked out my eye. My leg is broken 
too, master, for I fell from the window.” 

“You will make a better herdsman than 
soldier,’ said the king harshly. “ You are 
one-legged, one-eyed, and stupid. Go to 
your bed, and be careful that you do not 


234 


| 








CH. XI DEIRDRE 


cut your throat by taking off your boots. 
What did the woman look like?” 

‘“What woman, majesty?”’ 

‘The woman I sent you to look at.” 

‘She looked like the woman I saw in the 
crystal.” 

“I know she did. What did she look 
like, fool?” 

“She looked like the most beautiful 
woman in the world.” 

Conachur turned his great head and wide 
eyes on the soldier. 

“Be careful how you report to me, 
guard. How did that woman look? Is 
she thin-faced? Is she pale and haggard 
and wretched?” 

“She is not, majesty. She is red-lipped 
and sweet-eyed and delicious. She is the 
loveliest woman that moves in the world.” 

“Sit on that stool. Do not mind your 
eye for a moment. We shall mind it for 
you in a little time. Answer my questions. 
Did that woman look young or old?” 

“She looked young as a bride.”’ 

Are her cheeks thin?”’ 

“They are not thin; they are round and 
rosy.” 


235 


DEIRDRE BK. It 


“Are her eyes red and sunken?” 

“They are clear as sweet water, majesty; 
they are coloured—But for looking into 
them I should have got away, for, having 
looked, I could not but keep on looking 
until Naoise threw his chessman.”’ 

“You are muddled,’ said Conachur 
sternly. 

“T would give my other eye for another 
look at her,” said the guard savagely. 

Conachur leaped furiously to his feet. 

“You shall be cared for,” he said. “Go 
to your bed. A doctor shall be sent to you. 
A comrade will help you along. ... Hho, 
there!’? he thundered. ‘‘Ho, there, the 
guards!” 


236 


CHAPTER XII 


‘“WHat do you hear, Ardan?”’ 

“ Big feet, and a big lot of them.” 

“The doors are well secured?” 

‘ Every bolt is drawn.” 

“And the door we arranged for is left 
with only one bolt shot?” 

“Yes. It is a quick, well-oiled bolt. It 
will open and close again like lightning.” 

There came a loud command, and, in a 
moment, a thundering knock. 

Naoise strode to the door. 

“Who goes there?”’ 

‘The king’s men.”’ 

‘What do you want?” 

‘““We want the woman who is with you.” 

“Is that all you want?” 

‘““And we want Naoise, the son of Uis- 
neac.” 


237 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“They are both here,” said Naoise. 

‘Open this door,” the voice commanded. 

“ Ah, no,’ Naoise laughed, ‘why should 
we do your business, honest man?”’ 

There was no reply for a moment, but the 
rumble of conversation could be heard, then 
the voice came again. 

“You others, Ainnle and Ardan and the 
sons of Fergus, open this door and you shall 
go free.” 

Naoise looked gravely at his companions. 

‘That is the necessary second part,” said 
Buinne, hitching his sword-belt round. 

Naoise’s brothers took no notice, but their 
faces grew savage and their eyes narrowed 
and sparkled. 

‘“‘Tollann and Deirdre, keep an eye on the 
windows,” Naoise warned. 

Jollann dangled a sling in his hand and 
Deirdre held another with a copper bolt in it. 

“Tf,” said the voice, ‘‘the woman Deirdre 
comes out we will go away.” 

‘““Watch the windows,’ Naoise warned; 
“they are talking to keep us occupied.” 

Deirdre’s arm swung viciously, and a wild 
yell told that the bolt had gone home. } 

‘“‘T thought so,” said Naoise. “ They 


238 











CH. XII DEIRDRE 


cannot get in through the windows because 
of the bars, but they could manage to fly an 
arrow through, although it would be an 
awkward shot.” 

“Why,” said Ainnle, “we could go to 
sleep here!” 

A series of thundering knocks came on the 
door. 

“A ram!” said Buinne. 

“ Half-an-hour of that might bring even 
these doors down,” said Naoise. 

He turned to his companions. 

‘“Ardan, yours will be the first sortie. 
They will not be prepared, lad, for it is very 
awkward to work a ram and to keep guard 
at the same time. Do not mind the men 
with the ram; they will be unarmed. But 
behind them there will be a mass of men. 
You know how deep a fighter can penetrate! 
It depends on his own weight. The instant 
you touch that weight fight backwards. 
When you are two yards from the door 
Ainnle will shout. Turn then and run. I 
shall have the door closed on you almost 
before you are through. The moment the 
door slams, you, Buinne, push in the bottom 
bolt. J shall slide the middle one with my 


239 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


right hand and will be reaching for the top 
one with my left. You are ready! Ardan, 
listen to me. The men immediately in 
front of you will give back a step until they 
start to come on. Fight, therefore, to the 
right, sidewards, and with the point all the 
time. Keep your left covered with the 
shield, and if there is a press cut with its 
cutting edges. The moon is high, and you 
will be able to see. No foolhardiness, boy! 
The moment you touch weight fight back- 
wards, and then sweep broadly with the edge, 
and, when Ainnle shouts, run.” 

He turned again. 

‘“Buinne, stand to the bolts.  [ollann, 
Ainnle, Deirdre, place yourselves so, and 
sling the ramsmen or they may cumber his 
retreat. 

Under the thundering batter of the ram 
and the savage roaring of the invaders the 
bolts were half drawn. 

“Ready all!” said Naoise. “ Ready, 
Ardan?” 

Ardan hunched the shield to his left side 
and crouched, staring. ? 

“Good boy!” said Naoise. “Now, 
Buinne—Pull!” 


240 








CH. XII DEIRDRE 


They heaved the great door wide and 
Ardan went through it like an arrow. 

“Sling, children,” said Naoise. ‘Keep 
me informed, Ainnle. I must stick behind 
the door.” 

Penseat them; :and: welliin. «...), Ah!” 
said Ainnle, and he slung shrewdly. ‘He 
has forgotten to thrust and is cutting. My 
thanks, Iollann, for that bolt. His shield 
work is excellent, brother, but he will cut. 
There is his limit, if he knows it. He is 
fighting back, and now he is thrusting where 
he should use the sweeping blade for a 
retreat! That ramsman, Iollann! This one 
for me, and you, sister, for the crouching 
man. I shall shout now.” 

‘““Ardan!” he roared. 

The boy dropped his combat as a dog 
drops a toad. In three seconds he was 
through the doorway, and in four the door 
had slammed. 


Naoise towered long and lean over his 
young brother. 

“Good lad!” he said. ‘Well done, 
Ardan!” 

“T killed a million,” said Ardan. 


241 R 


DEIRDRE BK. It 


A savage, raging yell came from without. 

“They will begin to warm to it now,” 
said Naoise, “and we must keep them 
occupied. It is your turn, Ainnle. Give 
your sling to Ardan.”’ 

Ainnle whizzed at one window and Deirdre 
at another. Two loud shouts were heard. 

‘Whether they are hit or not their skulls 
are cracked by the fall,” said Naoise, “ but the 
windows do not matter. Come to this door.” 

“Why cannot I go out?” said Buinne. 

“You and I are the heaviest metal, my 
heart, and when the real fighting commences 
we shall have plenty to do. This is only a 
little fun for the boys. Ainnle, listen care- 
fully. You will slip out by this door, and 
will run, and fight as you run. Range where 
you please, but run always. In five minutes 
—do not delay, Ainnle—make for yonder 
door. This one will be shut, and the slings- 
men will be inside that door to cover your 
retreat. It is understood?” 

Ainnle nodded, and made his blade whistle 
through the air. He heaved the shield from 
his back to his shoulder. 

“The instant you are in, Ainnle, fly to this 
door again, while we close the other behind 


242 








CH. xt DEIRDRE 


you. Open all the bolts but one; Buinne 
will help, and I and Iollann will dart out for 
five minutes. I wish to see what arrange- 
ments they are making.” 

“Are you protecting my brother?” said 
Buinne savagely. 

“No, my heart, I am giving him a run 
and spying their dispositions.” 

“T claim this combat,” said the rough 
young man. 

“You shall have one immediately after- 
wards. You and I together will make the 
tour of this fortress, shoulder to shoulder, 
Buinne. Will not that content you?” 
Naoise laughed. 

“TI was beginning to feel lonely,” said 
Buinne. ‘‘ We shall have a pleasant run.” 

“Ten minutes for our run,” said Naoise. 
‘Ready, Ainnle?” 

His brother nodded. 

“Run straight out, thirty feet out if you 
can. Double then as you please. Remem- 
ber the door you are to come in by, and do all 
the damage you can. If you are in diff- 
culty give our call.” 

“JT could not get into difficulty in five 
minutes,’ Ainnle smiled. 


243 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


‘Ready, Buinne? Pull!”’ 

Ainnle sped out, and the door slammed on 
him like thunder. 

The uproar without had been terrific, but 
now it redoubled, and at times a long scream 
topped the noise as spray tops a wave. 


‘*'We cannot see our brother,”’ said Deirdre 
nervously. 

“We know his work,” Naoise replied. 
‘‘ He is as safe for five minutes as if he were 
in bed.” 

‘“Your combat, Naoise!”’ she breathed. 

‘It will be the easiest of them all. There 
will be a rough companion with me. Run 
all to the other door,” he cried. ‘‘Tol- 
lann! Deirdre! Ardan! Your - slings! 
The bolts, Buinne! Pull, my soul!” 

Far out in the moonlight Ainnle was 
coursing like a deer. The moon flashed on 
his blade and on his shield. Men ran from 
him, and men ran to head him off, and into 
the middle of these he went diving like a 
fish. A band from the right came rushing 
for the open door. 

‘‘Out, Buinne, for ten seconds, and back 
when he is through.” 


244 








CH. XII DEIRDRE 


Naoise and Buinne leaped out with whirl- 
ing weapons. There was a clatter of shields, 
a medley of shouts and curses, and in ten 
seconds they were in again and the door was 
closed. 

“You opened a minute too early,” said 
Ainnle. ‘I was all right.” 

“You did some damage?” 

“Not badly.” 

“You didn’t kill as many as I did,” said 
Ardan. 

“Pooh!” Ainnle retorted. ‘No one 
could kill as many as you except Cuchulinn.”’ 

“Let us arrange the next sortie,” said 
Naoise. 


245 


CHAPTER XIII 


CoNACHUR had come to the Red Branch, and 
a great roar of cheering greeted him. He 
strode to the captain of his troop. 

‘Well, my soul?” 

‘We have begun, majesty.” 

‘‘ How is it going?” 

“Excellently,” said the captain. “We 
have lost about forty men already.” 

Conachur stared at him. 

‘How did that happen?” 

“It happened because of the king’s royal 
decision to lodge these men in a fortress.” 

‘You have five hundred men here! ”” 

“ When they are all killed,” said the captain 
sourly, ‘‘we can call out another five hundred.” 

“What is the difficulty?” his master 
growled. | 

“A fortress with six doors. They leap 


246 








CH. XIII DEIRDRE 


in and out of these doors the way frogs leap 
ina pool. While we are using the ram on 
this door they make a sally by another door, 
this door, any door—and they are the devil’s 
own fighters! We don’t know where to 
expect them, and any one of those within 
is the equal of ten of our men in fighting, 
and the superior of them all in tricks. I am 
to have them out before morning—it is the 
king’s orders, but I don’t know how it is to 
be done.” 

“Ram all the doors,” said Conachir. 

“I have but one ram. I can get others 
to-morrow.” 

‘To-morrow will be too late,” said the 
king furiously. ‘We shall have half Ulster 
on our backs to-morrow.” 

“I want scaling ladders, grapnels,” said 
the officer angrily. ‘This work has been 
thrown on us at a moment’s notice and we 
are not prepared for it. I can get them out 
in a day, but not in a night.” 

“ Attack a door with your ram,” snarled 
Conachur, “and guard your other doors.” 

“I am doing that,” said the captain, “and 
my men, I fear, are beginning to love the 
work.” 


247 


DEIRDRE BK. If 


He returned to his place, and in a few 
minutes the thud and batter of the ram was 
heard again. Conachur strode there and 
watched the work with savage impatience. 
The captain returned and stood by him. 

“You put good doors in the Red Branch, 
majesty,” he said cheerfully, ‘‘an hour of 
that ramming will begin to make them 
quiver.” 

A shout arose, but it was multiplied from 
every side by the roaring soldiery, and one 
could not tell from which direction danger 
came. 

“They have popped out somewhere,” 
said the captain. ‘“‘In about two minutes 
they will pop in again, somewhere—they 
know but we don’t, and in those two minutes 
we will lose five men or twenty.” 

“Stick to the ram,’ Conachur roared. 
“Keep at that door, my men.” 

A wild yelling came from the side and a 
burst of men came pell-mell round the 
corner. Weapons were striking everywhere 
and anywhere. 

“Which are our men and which are 
theirs?’ said the captain. ‘Ours don't 
know in this light which is friend and which 


248 








CH. xIll DEIRDRE 


is enemy. They know,” he said bitterly, 
“but we are killing one another.” 


Two figures detached themselves in the 
moonlight. They were bounding like great 
cats, and wherever there was a mass they 
bounded into it, burst through it, and 
leaped on. 

“To, Conachtr!” a voice called, “do 
you remember Naoise?”’ 

“Ho, traitor king!’ another boomed. 
‘“Do you remember Fergus?” 

“Tt is Naoise and Buinne this time,’ 
the captain. 

The two figures leaped at the ramsmen. 
The ram was dropped, and the unarmed 
crew fled yelling. The door that was being 
battered opened and shut, and the two 
figures were gone. 

‘“That’s how it’s done!”’ said the captain. 

“Get to the ram!”’ Conachur roared. 


” said 


249 


CHAPTER XIV 


“Tre king himself is there,” said Naoise. 

“Tet us hunt him,” cried Ardan in 
savage glee. 

‘He will move about,” Naoise replied. 
‘“We would never know where he is, and 
we should only waste time. We have but 
to hold out until the morning, and we can 
do it* with ease.» Why! > he criediiaaias 
have forgotten our days of travel; Fergus 
himself may be here to-morrow.” 

“He will travel day and night, and by 
chariot where we came on foot,” said lollann. 
‘“He may be here in the morning.” 

Naoise nodded joyfully. 

“He will have choked whatever is in it 
out of Borach’s throat long before this,” 
Tollann continued, ‘‘and he will be an 
angry man.” 

250 








CH. XIV DEIRDRE 


“Tf he came, even alone,” said Naoise, 
“that rabble would fly.” 

“They will fly before he comes,’ Ardan 
boasted, ‘‘for it’s my turn to go out now, 
and I shall show them a trick or two.” 

“Tt’s two by two now, babe,” said Ainnle, 
“so we are going out together.” 

“That man,” Ardan mourned, “‘is trying 
to cheat me of my fame. Fight for me, 
Deirdreen! Back me up, Naoise!”’ 


“Fark to them battering,” said Iollann. 

“Tow angry some people get,’ Ardan 
giggled. 

“T et us make a full sortie,” Buinne cried. 
“We five could eat those soldiers.” 

“One must be left for the door,’ Naoise 
replied. ‘‘ Ardan Fe 

“No door for me!” said Ardan violently. 

“ Ainnle,’ said Naoise, ‘our lives will 
depend on the doorman.” 

“T shall go out the next time all by 
myself,”’ Ainnle bargained. | 

His brother nodded, while Ardan danced 
for joy. 

“Pooh!” Ainnle gibed. “He thinks 
he is Cuchulinn!” 





251 


DEIRDRE i BK. Il 


Ardan squared up and began to shoulder 
him and to speak very roughly. 

‘And I am better than Ctchulinn,” he 
concluded. 

Ainnle seized his head and gave him 
three kisses. | 

“Little brother!” he said, ‘you are 
even better than I.” 

‘You are a good brother,” said Ardan. 
“IT shall not divorce you,’ and he returned 
the three kisses. 

‘Are we ready all?” said Naoise. 
‘Then let us arrange this sally.” 

“It shall be in two parties. Buinne 
and ” he halted for one moment, 
‘“Buinne and Ardan, Jollann and my- 
seLf.’’ 

‘You trust Ardan to me!’ said Buinne 
shortly. 

“Why not?” said Naoise. 

Deirdre was staring at her husband with 
a fixed, white stare, and Naoise’s throat went 
suddenly dry. He strode to her. 

‘What is it?’ he murmured. 

“I have no vision,” she whispered. “TI 
do not know.” | 


You still think 





p?? 
252 











' CH. XIV . DEIRDRE 


“I know it,’’ she said, “but I do not 
know when.” 

He closed his eyes and turned again. 

“We go through this door. Once out, 
you turn to the left, Buinne, and I to the 
right and away each on a grand half circle. 
When we meet we form in line and charge 
back to this same door: six feet between 
each man for sword-play; Buinne and I 
on the outside.” 

‘I shall be quite on the outside,” said 
Buinne. 

‘As you will, friend,” said Naoise. ‘“‘ Get 
to the bolts, Ainnle. You two will watch 
over each other?”’ he said, but it was at 
Buinne he looked. 

‘I shall bring him back,” said the gruff 
man. 

“Tf one of Buinne’s hairs is touched,” 
Ardan boasted, “I shall give him one of 
my own hairs instead of it.” 

‘You are ready, Ainnle?”’ 

“How shall I know when to open the 
door?’’ Ainnle roared. 

“My wits are going!” said Naoise. ‘We 
shall fight in silence, and when you hear our 
battle-cry open the door at that instant.” 


253 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“Wait! said Buinne. ‘‘ Heavier blades 
are wanted for this sortie. It should be 
two-handed work at the edge of a thirty- 
foot line, and the shields must be left behind.” 

“My wits are indeed going!” said 
Naoise. 

“T shall bring him back,” said Buinne. 
“T take him under my protection,” he 
growled. 

‘You two,” said Naoise, “keepyyous 
shields. Buinne and I take the great swords, 
and we leave our armour off for speed. The 
outside men must run twice as quick as 
the inside ones,” he explained to Buinne. 

Buinne nodded and_ began to unlace his 
battle-coats. Deirdre flew to help him, and 
she looked at him with such soft affection 
that the youth marvelled. Naoise was bend- 
ing the great blade that he got from Manan- 
nan mac Lir, the God of the Sea. 

‘Now, Ainnle, the door! Buinne is out 
first, I second, Iollann and Ardan together. 
Ready! . .. Pull!” 

They were gone. 


Ainnle and Deirdre slammed the door, 
and he stood with his back leaning against 


254 


TTC, ee ee—V—<3—_ TUT eee erm TTT eeer—<“<S<7;3 Om 


CH. XIV DEIRDRE 


it, staring as it were inwardly, and listening 
with every pore of his body. Deirdre threw 
her arms about his neck. 

“Oh Ainnle! dear Ainnle!” 

“Tt is lonely here,” he muttered. 

Her head drooped on his breast. 

“Do not faint, sister, the door has yet 
to be opened, and you must help with the 
bolts.”’ 

“Hear those clowns roaring!.’ 

‘“Tf our own men would but shout once,” 
she moaned. 

“T should open the door immediately,” 
he smiled, ‘‘and this noble combat would 
have a stupid end.” 

‘““'To-morrow will never come,”’ she moaned. 

“‘Do not make my teeth chatter,’ said 
Ainnle. 

“We must attend to the door,’ he 
continued. “I shall draw the top bolt now. 
Crouch down with your hands on the bottom 
one, and, when the shout comes, draw it; I 
will draw the middle one, and when I say, 
*Pull,’ drag with me on the door. It: is 
almost too heavy for one man to move, but 
between us—and they will push from the 
outside.” 


255 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


Deirdre crouched at his knees. A yast 
confusion of noise began to draw nigh. 

‘They are coming back,’’ said Aianle, 
‘Draw your bolt now, sister, and take hold 
of the knob.” 

Above the infernal uproar there came the 
shout they knew. 

“Pull!” he roared. 

The door gave, a great push from without 
helped it, and the four leaped through. A 
blade leaped in behind them and was 
snapped in pieces as Ainnle, and a shoulder 
helping, smashed to the door. 

Buinne was panting heavily. 

‘That deserves a rest,’ he said. 

And the other three began with one voice 
to narrate the sortie to the two who had bera 
within. 


256 











CHAPTER XV 


BUINNE stood up. 

‘““Naoise,” he said sternly. 

“My soul?” said Naoise. 

“You interfered in my combat.” 

“Your end of the line was almost too 
heavy for any man, dear heart.” 

“You did it twice.” 

“Thirty feet out is a great distance. All 
the press was in your path. I did but 
lighten it when my own front was easy.” 

“T will accept no man’s assistance,”’ said 
Buinne. 

“We are comrades,” Naoise replied gently. 
“We give and take help.” 

“Did I call for help?” the other 
growled. 

Naoise’s great chest rose, but his voice 
was calm. 


257, Ss 


DEIRDRE BK. 1 


‘No man will ever hear you call for help, 
Buinne.” 

“Let no man give what is not called for.” 

“But for that help, Buinne, you would 
now be dead.” 

‘I was not fit for the end of the line?” 
said Buinne harshly. 

‘You are young yet, comrade, but in 
two years you will have the speed and 
smash that such a post calls for.” 

“Your speed! your smash!’ said the 
sardonic Buinne. 

‘The world knows,” Ainnle interposed, 
“that the four greatest champions of Ire- 
land are Cuchulinn, Fergus, Conall, and 
Naoise.”’ 

“And Ainnle,” Buinne completed with a 
grin. 

The young man turned his dancing length 
of whipcord and his narrowed brow on 
Buinne. 

T, myself ” he said gently. 

‘‘ And so could I,” said Ardan. 

‘Do not quarrel,’ Naoise interrupted. 
‘In two years Buinne will be the equal of 
any man you have named. Hush,” he said. 


He bent his head sideward and hearkened 
258 











CH. XV DEIRDRE 


in amazement. The others listened, with 
their eyes turned questioningly on each other. 
They listened to nothing, for the ram had 
ceased and there was a silence of the dead 
without. 

In a few moments there came a gentle 
tapping, then a louder knocking at the door. 

Naoise stood before it, frowning. 

“Who goes there?”’ 

oma ne herald.” 

‘“What do you want?” 

pbancy.. 

‘Say what you have to say, herald.” 

‘Tf the woman Deirdre is put out through 
this door the troops will march away.” 

‘And what then?” 

“No vengeance will be for ever exacted 
against the sons of Uisneac.” 

“There is no answer,” said Naoise. 

‘‘T have yet a message,” said the voice. 

svideliver it.” 

“Tt is for the ear of the sons of Fergus.” 

Buinne strode forward. 

‘* Deliver it,” he said. 

“There is no quarrel,’ said the herald, 
“between the king and Fergus mac Roy. 
The king’s love for Fergus is such that he 


259 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


wishes at any cost to save his two sons from 
a death that is certain.” 

“Well?” said Buinne. 

“The king says that if these young men 
retire from the combat he will bestow a lord- 
ship on them.” 

“What lordship?” 

“A cantred of land greater than that 
which Fergus himself has, and the king’s 
friendship.” 

Buinne looked under steep red brows at 
Naoise. 

‘‘T shall go out,” he said. 

He turned to his brother. 

‘You will come out with me.” 

‘“*T shall not,” said Iollann. 

His brother stamped a foot. 

“My father is my chief,’ said Iollann. 
‘“What he orders I do. I cannot protect 
the sons of Uisneac as he commanded, but 
I can fight beside them.” 

Buinne turned. 

“Herald,” he roared, ‘tell Conachtr 
that I shall go out to him.” 

His hand went to the door, but Naoise 
stepped forward. 

‘‘Do not touch a bolt,” he commanded. 


260 








CH. XV DEIRDRE 


“You shall go out by the door I choose. 
That door,” he pointed, and strode to it. 
“Tollann, Ainnle, stand so with the spears, 
Ardan, Deirdre, sling from this point. 
Buinne stand so, one foot beyond the swing 
of the door.” 

“We may meet again, Naoise,” said 
Buinne. } 

“If we meet in the press, Buinne, I may 
perhaps spare you for the sake of my brother 
Tollann. Ready, Buinne! When the door 
is opened I shall count three. Be gone ere 
the last count or I shall smash you to a pulp.” 

Naoise gave one mighty heave, and 
counted. Then Buinne was gone and the 
door had closed again. 

“T claim this sortie,’ said Iollann, as the 
ram recommenced on the door. 

“It is my turn,” said Ainnle, “but we 
will go together, friend.” 

“I wish to go alone, and bring honour 
back to the name of Fergus. I am a better 
fighter than you think,” he insisted. 

“ You are a good fighter in truth,’ said 
Naoise, “but a solitary venture is now 
dangerous. They are more accustomed to 


201 


DEIRDRE BK. I! 


the light and to our methods, for there is 
nothing to vary in them. We must emerge 
by a door, and they are watching every door 
like hawks. But before you go, I[ollann, 
there is one work we must do for safety’s 
sake. Listen carefully, my dear ones.” 


262 








CHAPTER XVI 


‘Tus is endless,’ Conachur gritted. ‘ Has 
that Buinne come out yet?” 

‘The men will shout when he appears.” 

‘Bring him here and we will get their 
dispositions from him.” 

‘There is nothing to get, majesty. Their 
plan is the simplest. They have six 
doors: they choose one to come out by 
and one to get in by. That is the whole 
plan.” 

“Post men in such a way that when 
one does come out he will not be able to 
get in again through that door or any door. 
Send for reinforcements and put fifty men 
against each door. . . . Those ramsmen have 
women’s shoulders,” he growled. ‘ They 
would beat a mud wall down in a month.” 

“It must give shortly,” said the captain, 


263 


DEIRDRE BK. ll 


“but there will be no entrance when the 
door is down.” 

“No?” said Conachur. 

‘They will have the inside barricaded, 
and our men will not dare that narrow, 
black, impeded passage. We could leave an 
hundred dead in that doorway and be no 
farther.” 


“There is Buinne,” the captain con- 
tinued, as a shout came from the side. 

‘“Buinne,” said Conachir, “you will 
fight for me?” 

‘“My lordship, Conachir?’ said the 
gruff young man. 

‘It shall be as I said, and more,” said the 
king. (It was given as promised, and was 
known for long as Dal Buinne, but it is now 
called Slieve Fuad.) 

Buinne told what he could of the defence, 
but, as the captain had foreseen, there was 
nothing to tell. 

‘This door,’ said Conachur, ‘will be 
down shortly. Have they barricaded it on 
the inside ?”’ 

‘They have not,’’ said Buinne. 

The captain became active and violent. 


264 








CH. XVI DEIRDRE 


“Ah!” he cried, “there is always some- 
thing forgotten.” 

‘Get at the ram, you there,” he roared. 
“Put your shoulders into it.” 

He turned to the king. 

“We have them!” he said. 

Conachur, with his eyes gleaming and a 
savage smile curling his lips, strode towards 
the rammers, but as he moved the door 
swung open and four men leaped from its 
yawning blackness. In a second two of 
the ramsmen were dead, and the rest were 
flying wildly, bustling the very king in their 
passage. : 

“ By my hand!” the captain gureled. 

Two of the assaulters lifted the ram and 
trotted with it through the door. The other 
two made an onslaught of such ferocity that 
the soldiers were appalled. Then one fled 
back through the door, which instantly 
slammed, and the other sped like lightning 
around the building. 

‘After him!” roared Conachiur. 

But the captain remained where he was, 
howling and dancing with rage. 

“Pye lost my ram,” he bawled. ‘I’ve 
lost my ram.” 


265 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


“We have you, Iollann!” said Conachur. 
“Traitor to your king!” he growled. 

“Traitor to your friends,” Iollann re- 
torted. 

“Deliver yourself to me,” said Conachur, 
“and you shall be spared.” 

“JT came out for a purpose,” said [ollann. 
‘““T demand single combat.” 

“There are no gentlemen here,’ Cona- 
chur replied, “except your brother, so your 
claim cannot be granted.” 

“J shall cuff him,” said Buinne, “but I 
will not fight him,” and he strode away. 

“T shall take this combat,” said a voice. 

Conachir turned and saw his own son, 
Fiachra, standing there, and his heart 
sank. 

“You have no arms,” he said harshly. 

“ You will lend me yours,” said Fiachra. 

Conachir stared on the fierce circle that 
surrounded him. He stared at Tollann, 
who stood with his back to the Red Branch 
swinging his blade, and he knew that the 
combat must take place. 


’ 


“TJollann and I were born on the same 


night,” said Fiachra. ‘Tt is an equal 
combat.” 


266 


‘ +, > ¥ at a i 
al a (Se ae a Las, Pan at ia 


a ee a 


CH. XVI DEIRDRE 


Conachur took off his own battle-coats and 
gave them to Fiachra. He gave him his 
shield, the enchanted Aicean, and his green 
sword. 

“Fight, then,’ he said, “and remember 
my teaching. Remember my shield work 
and my thrust.” 

They fought then, but at the first stroke 
from Iollann the great shield roared; for 
that virtue was in the Bright-Rim, to roar 
when the man it covered was struck at, and 
in answer to its roar the Three Waves of 
Ireland, the Wave of Tua, the Wave of 
Cliona, and the Wave of Rury roared in 
reply, and thereby all Ireland knew that a 
king was in danger. 


Away in the palace Conall Cearnach sat 
drinking, listening to some great brawl, as 
he thought. He heard the roaring of 
Aicean, and leaped to his feet. 

“The king is in danger!” he said. 

He seized his weapons and fled from the 
palace of Macha, and came on the great 
combat. 

In the dim light he thought it was Cona- 
chur himself was behind the shield, and from 


267 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


the daring and mighty onslaught of the 
opponent he saw there was no time to lose. 
He burst his blue-green spear through the 
press and through the back of Iollann. 

Iollann staggered to the wall of the Red 
Branch. 

“Who has struck me from _ behind?” 
he said. 

‘1, Conall Cearnach.” 

“Great and horrible is the deed you have 
done, Conall.” 

‘“Who are you?” Conall demanded. 

“T am [ollann the Fair, sent by my 
father to protect the sons of Uisneac.” 

‘““By my hand,” said Conall fiercely, “I 
shall undo some of what I have done,” and 
with one side twist of the sword he lifted 
the head from Fiachra. 

‘“Help me to that door, Conall,” said 
Tollann.::) “The ‘sons. of Ulisneae ware 
within.” 

The appalled soldiery shrank back, and 
on Conall’s arm they came to the door. 
There Iollann gave his shout. A feeble 
one it was, but it was heard and the door 
opened. [ollann staggered in. 

“Fight bravely, Naoise!”’ he said, and 


268 


CH. xvI DEIRDRE 


with that he sank on the floor, and he was 
dead. 


Outside the Red Branch Conachtr ran 
hither and thither like a man enraged by 
madness. 


269 


CHAPTER XVII 


“WE are yet three,” said Naoise. “Draw 
the bolts, Ainnle, for one sortie of friend- 
ship. We have no doorman, for Deirdre 
could not close or open the door by herself. 
You and I, Ainnle. Be quiet, Ardan! 
Come, my brother, and put all your arm 
into the blade. We will come in by the 
door we go out of. This door! Be ready 
for our shout, Ardan!”’ 

They went out and returned with red 
weapons, and for a long time they sat in 
the dim flare of a torch watching by their 
dead comrade. 

‘‘ He was a brave boy,” said Deirdre. 

‘He did not obey my order,” her husband 
sighed. ‘I do not know what he did.” 


“I smell—smoke,” said Ainnle suddenly. — 


“I have smelled something for a long 
270 


ea ee 





ee eee ee 





CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


time,” said Deirdre, ‘‘but I could not think 
what it was. I am weary because of the 
death of this good friend.” 

But little by little the vast building 
became full of smoke, and in a while a fierce 
roar and crackling was heard also. 

Naoise was again the hardy leader. 

‘They have fired the fortress! We do 
not know what happened while Iollann was 
away, but Conachtr has reached the end of 
the world. Who could have foretold that 
he would fire the Red Branch! We must 
prepare for all that can happen.” 

‘We are not dead yet,” said Ardan. 

“What do you counsel, brother?” said 
Ainnle. 

‘“Sit down, there is less smoke on the 
floor.” 

A ruddy glare could be seen by each 
window. 

‘Fire is laid all round the building. We 
must make our plans quickly.” 

Ainnle turned gleefully to his younger 
brother. 

“You shall run after all, my poor friend.” 

elo seood. truth,’ Ardan grinned,‘ I 
thought in Scotland that I should never 


271 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


want to run again, but I feel now that we 
have been staying too long in the one place. 
After all,” he said complacently, “I am a 
man of action.” 

‘And, of course,” Ainnle gibed, ‘‘no 
one can run as quickly as you can.” 

‘No one,” said Ardan, “except Deirdre.” 


“Listen,” said Naoise. ‘‘We have still 
more than a chance. We can run. Scot- 
land trained us in that certainly, and if we 
can surprise but forty yards on the men 
without, we will outrun their best in twenty 
minutes.” 

‘Where shall we run to?” 

‘We shall take the road to our own lord- 
ship. If Lavarcham’s message has been 
sent our kinsmen should be marching at 
this moment on Emain. But,” he said, 
and pointed, “‘ we cannot wait for them.” 

They looked in silence. 

A huge, golden flame licked screaming 
through the window, wavered hither and 
thither like some blindly savage tongue, and 
roared out again. 

“It was ten feet long and three feet 
thick,” said Ardan in a whisper. 


272 


« _— 








CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


“Tn ten minutes we will go,” said Naoise. 

‘What arms?”’ 

“Shield and spear, brother. Strip off all 
armour. We must run lightly.” 

“JT shall be out first,’ he continued. 
“Give me twenty seconds before you 
follow, Ainnle, I can make room in twenty 
seconds. You will run ten paces to the 
left of the door. Deirdre and Ardan will 
run immediately into our interval; turn all 
to the right, and at my shout, run. Single 
file; Ainnle at the end. If I shout ‘halt,’ 
you two turn about and protect the rear. 
When I shout ‘run,’ drop every combat 
and fly. You, Deirdre, take Iollann’s shield.” 

‘“‘ And his spear,” said Deirdre. 

“Keep actually at my back, beloved, and 
each time we halt drop flat on the ground.” 

He was shouting his instructions now, for 
the voice of the fire was like the steady rage 
and roar of the sea, and through every 
window monstrous sheets of flame were 
leaping and crashing. 

‘This door,” said Naoise. ‘A kiss for 
every one,” he called. “We shall win yet. 
Pull, Ainnle!”’ 

‘‘The door is red hot,” said Ainnle. 


273 r 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“Back for a mantle; two. Now grip. 
Pull! Give me twenty seconds, Ainnle.”’ 

He leaped across fire and disappeared. 

The others leaped after him, with a wild 
yell from Ardan. 


Conachur had sent a flying messenger to 
the palace. 

‘‘ Bring Cathfa back with you,” he ordered. 
“Tell him I want him. Say that the king 
beseeches him to come.” 

The captain of his troop stood by. 

‘Alas for the Red Branch!” he said 
mournfully. 

‘All that can be destroyed can be rebuilt,” 
said Conachir. ‘I shall rebuild the Red 
Branch.” 

He was in terrible distress and agitation. 

‘The morn is nigh,” he said. 

And he strode unhappily to and fro, with 
his eyes on the ground and his mind warring. 


Far to the east a livid gleam appeared. 
The darkness of a summer night, which is 
yet a twilight, was shorn of its soft beauty, 
and in the air there moved imperceptibly 
and voluminously a spectral apparition of 
dawn. <A harsh, grey, iron-bound upper- 


274 





CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


world brooded on a chill and wrinkled earth. 
The king’s eyes and the eyes of his captain 
scanned each other from colourless, bleak 
faces. ‘There was no hue in their garments; 
their shields were dull as death; and their 
hands, each clutching a weapon, seemed like 
the knotted claws of goblins. 

A slow, sad exhalation came from the 
king’s grey lips, like the plaint of some 
grim merman of the sea, rising away and 
alone amid the chop and shudder of his 
dismal waters. 


“The fire is catching,’ the captain mur- 
mured. ‘“ Hark to that crackling!” 

“We shall have light,” the king murmured. 
“The Red Branch will flame.” 

“Within . . .!” said the captain moodily, 
and he looked with stern mournfulness on 
the vast pile. 

‘“'They must soon come out,’ he muttered. 

‘Your men are posted?”’ 

“Every door is held. When they pop 
out this time v 

“They will have no place to pop into,” 
said Conachir. ‘I have them,” he growled; 
and he threw his hand in the air and gripped 


279 





DEIRDRE BK. II 
it, as though in that blanched fist he held 


all that could never escape from him. 

“They will fight,” said the captain, ‘and 
they are woeful fighters.” 

‘“You are nervous, man,” said Conachir. 

“At this hour and after this night,” said 
the captain, ‘our men could fly from those 
three like scared rabbits.” 

‘‘T fear that,” said Conachur. 

“They may get away,” said the captain. 

Conachur advanced on him so savagely 
and with such a writhe of feature that the 
man fell back. 

* Dogh”?. :said* Conachir. “7 STi aatpey 
escape I shall take your head.” 

“They are surrounded,” the captain 
stammered; “they cannot escape.” 

“They can escape,” Conachir roared. 
“You know they can escape. Your men 
are cowards and idiots, and what are you? 
Oh, am I not a thwarted man! Am I 
not a forsaken king! Where is Cathfa? 
Where is the druid?” he cried. 

“Majesty,” the captain implored, ‘do 
not curse us. The great magician is coming.” 


’ 


The magician indeed had come. 
276 





CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


“What has set you raging, Conachur?” 
he asked. 

“Father,” said Conachir. “If you do 
not assist me I am lost.” 

The old, old man looked at him. 

“Tell me your tale, son. Whom have 
you locked up in fire?” 

“The sons of Uisneac are there,” said 
Conachir. ‘They will escape me,” he 
said. 

“They are my _ grandchildren,” said 
Cathfa. 

“Tt is the woman with them. It is 
Deirdre I want. She was mine. She was 
stolen from me. I am not myself without 
her. I am a dead man while she is with 
Naoise.”’ 

“What do you fear from boys roared 
round by flame?” 

“They may escape with her. When 
they come out my men may run from 
them. If they escape this time, father, I 
am dead.” 

“Tf I help you, Conachur Ne 

“T shall do anything you ask. Nothing 
you can demand will be too much for 
Conachur.”’ 





277. 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


“Tt is the woman you want?” 

‘The woman only.” 

“It is not the blood of these boys you 
lust for?” 

‘The woman, father, only the woman.” 

“T shall help you, Conachir. Do not 
lay one finger on my daughter’s sons, the 
sons of your young sister.” 


‘They are out,” the captain said, as a 
great roar came from the soldiers. 

Conachtr moved to that direction. 

‘Quick, quick,” he said, twitching his 
father’s mantle in his impatience. ‘‘ They 
will escape me.” 

“They shall not escape me,” Cathfa 
answered. ‘ There is no need for haste.” 


They were out, indeed, and, like two 
grim lions or woeful griffins of the air 
Naoise and Ainnle were raging in that press. 
Into their interval leaped Ardan, with but 
one eye peeping from the shield and a 
deadly hand thrusting from the rim. Back 
and forth they leaped with resistless savagery. 
Men flew at them and from them. Every- 
where was a wild yelling of orders and the 


278 





§ 


CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


wilder screaming of stricken men. But over 
all Naoise’s voice came pealing— 

“Up, Deirdre. Run!” 

She was at his back in an instant: the 
shield covering her side, her spear darting 
viciously by his right elbow, and a venture- 
some man dropped squealing. Five feet 
behind Ardan was leaping like a cat, all 
eyes and points, and ten paces behind him 
Ainnle was bounding. 

“Halt,” roared Naoise. 

Deirdre was again on the ground. Ardan 
ranged tigerishly to right and left, while 
Ainnle whirled on the pursuers in ten-foot 
bounds. 


Conachir had arrived with Cathfa. Men 
were falling before them at the rate of three 
a second. So dreadful was Naoise’s on- 
slaught in the front that none would face 
him. Men tumbled over each other when 
he charged. 

“The men will run away in a second,” 
said the captain. 

“Get into the mélée, coward,” roared 
Menachardues st.) «Cathfa ! he im- 
plored. 





279 


DEIRDRE BK. II 
The officer whizzed out his blade and 


leaped forward. In three seconds he was 
dead, and five who followed him were 
rolling in their agony along the ground. 

Naoise’s voice came in a wild shout. 

© Up, Deirdre. Run!” 

The four were again in line. The men 
in front melted to either side of that dreadful 
file. 


‘“Run!” said Naoise. ‘We are out!” 


In front of him there was but Conachir 
and Cathfa. Conachir drew his great 
sword and stood crouching; and at him, 
with a dreadful smile, Naoise came on. 
Cathfa moved two paces to the front and 
stared fixedly at Naoise. He extended his 
two arms widely 





Naoise dropped on one knee, rose again, 
leaped high in the air and dropped again 
on his knee. Deirdre fell to the ground 
and rose up gasping. Ardan rolled over on 
his back, tossed his shield away, and came 
slowly up again, beating the air with his 
hands. Ainnle went half way down, rose 
again, and continued his advance on tiptoe. 


280 








CH. XVII DEIRDRE 


A look of dismay and rage came on 
Naoise’s face. He moved with extraor- 
dinary slowness to Deirdre and lifted her 
to his shoulder. 

“We are lost,” he said. nat 
magician bey 

“Keep on swimming,’ Ardan giggled. 
‘There was never water here before, but 
the whole sea has risen around our legs, 
and we may paddle to Uisneac.”’ 

The arms dropped from their hands, and, 
in fact, they swam. 

Not for a minute or two did the soldiers 
dare advance, and then they did so cautiously. 
They picked up the fallen weapons, and then 
only did they lay hands on the raging 
champions. 

Cathfa dropped his arms to his sides. 





“We are taken,’ said Naoise. ‘Our 
run is ended.” 


281 


CHAPTER XVIII 


CATHFA had gone away, and Conachir strode 
to his prisoners. 

“So! Naoise,” he said. 

“So! uncle,” said Naoise. 

“I win in the end. I always win at last,” 
said Conachur. 

He looked at each with his stern smile, 
and when he spoke again it was to 
Deirdre. 

“Little fawn! you have run wild for a 
long time. You shall rest at last.” 

But she made only the reply that a fawn 
makes, the reply of parted lips and terror- 
stricken eyes. 

‘You shall come to me,” he said. 

Then she moistened her trembling lips 
and looked at Naoise. 

“Do not look at him,” said Conachur. 


282 





CH. XVIII DEIRDRE 


“He is already a dead man; let him be 
forgotten. All tricks and troubles are 
ended for you, sweet bird; you shall have 
peace.” 

‘Will you have peace to-morrow, Cona- 


chur?” said Naoise. “Fergus is marching 
on you.” 

“Be at ease, nephew,” and the king 
smiled grimly. ‘I shall take care of 


Fergus when he comes. For long I have 
wanted to take care of Fergus. But, first, 
I shall take care of you, Naoise, and of your 
traitor brothers. Your hour is on you,” he 
said, “and you die now.” 

‘Churl and rogue !”’ said Ainnle. 

But a gesture from his brother stopped 
him. 

“Let this king do his business,’ he 
said. 

‘That must be done,” said Conachur. 

He turned briskly and moved away. 





Now the day was at hand, and these four 
looked on a world that was spectral and mis- 
shapen, but which was yet the world. On 
high the clouds could be seen, a grey im- 
mensity, stony as the face of Conachir, and 


283 


DEIRDRE BK. Il 


a chill wind moaned thinly about them. 
But far away the grey misery of morn had 
lightened, and a silver gleam, slender as a 
rod, crept up the east. 

To that gleam their eyes turned, and 
from it to each other’s faces. 

At the guards who ringed them in they 
did not look, or they looked unseeingly. 
But those gaunt apparitions stared like 
statues on the four and did not move a lip. 

“The sun will rise in a little,’ said 


Ardan. ... ‘‘That magician has gone,” 
he whispered. “If we leaped at the 
guards Fi 





“No good, brother, they are too many 
and we have no arms.” 

‘We should have one merry minute,” 
said Ardan. 

‘““We have had a merry night,” said 
Ainnle, ‘‘ be contented, babe.” 


Naoise looked lovingly on his brothers. 

“We were always together,” he said. 
“We shall always be together.” 

And J).u:. [7 said Deirdre agree 
be left out at last ?” 

“Sweet girl,’ said Naoise; “he will kill 


284 





CH. XVIII DEIRDRE 


us, but you will be spared. You shall 
see that sun come up. You shall look at it 
for us.” 

“Dear husband,” she said, ‘do you still 
love me? Do you truly love me?”’ 

His eyes gave her answer. 


“Tere comes Conachtr,” said Ainnle. 

“And a large person with him,” said 
Ardan. 

It was Mainé Rough-Hand, son of the 
King of the Fair Norwegians, they say; but 
others think it was Eogan, son of Durthacht, 
the prince of Ferney. 

“You shall die at the hand of a gentleman 
as befits your rank,” said Conachur. 

“T shall be the first,” said Ardan briskly. 
“T am first in every great deed,” he ex- 
plained to Conachur. 

“Hark to him!” Ainnle laughed. 
“Respect your elders, young person, and 
the heads of your family.” 

But Ardan appealed to Maine. 

“Tet me be first, sweet sir,” he pleaded. 
He turned confidingly to Conachir. “I 
cannot bear to see my brothers killed,” he 
said. 


285 


DEIRDRE BK. II 


Deirdre knelt by the bodies, and she 
sang their keen, beginning: 


“I send a blessing eastward to Scotland.” 


When she had finished the poem she 
bowed over her husband’s body: she sipped 
of his blood, and she died there upon his 
body. 


SO FAR, THE FATE OF THE SONS OF UISNEAC, 
AND THE OPENING OF THE GREAT TAIN 


286 





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